Fiendish Confessions
by Layla-Fae
Summary: The Traitor's heart ache, the Winner's regretted win, the Monster's killing throb, the Lover's grope vehemence, the Brother's guilty knowledge, the Murder's inherited execute, and the Leader's sore recompense.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **this story will contain violence and cussing. May be changed to M later on if needed. The third series never happened, this is not the sequel to Safe. Please Review, help a girl out. Thanks for reading. -LF

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Amy woke up to the nightmare. She didn't see any of it coming. None. She never really imaged it happening to them, which she should have.

The night before, she fell asleep normally. She finished her homework and settled into her comfy bed at about 9:30. It was a Tuesday night.

When she woke up that Wednesday morning, about nine hours later, she found herself laying on her side on the right side of her bed, which was also normal. It was normal for the first things she saw that morning was the sun shining through the window and the pictures of her love ones in there simple black and brown frames on her nightstand.

She remembered glancing over to the close corner of the white nightstand and seeing her alarm clock saying the time in bright neon green numbers.

What wasn't normal was the painful pressure she felt on the left side of her head, right in front of her ear. She tried to turn her head only to have it pushed back down onto her pillow. The center of the pressure was in the shape of a circle and she knew exactly what it was before the voice spoke.

"Good morning, Miss Cahill," the voice, which was very low in tone and slow in rate, whispered into her ear. "I've been waiting for you to wake up all day."

Amy couldn't see his face or the object that was being held against her head but she knew the object was a gun, and the owner of the voice wanted her dead.

Just than she was pulled harshly out of her bed, and thrown onto her carpet floor. She was about to jump and fight but the intruder was on top of her before she could even blink.

Her arms were instantly pointed down by strong hands that were wrapped around her wrist. A pair of knees were on her stomach, making it hard to breath. When she looked up, she was faced with a man who, even to this day, could not be described.

His hair could be taken by all kinds of colors; brown, blonde, black. His skin was pale, and yet tan. His face, overall, could have been declared forgetful...all but those eyes.

His eyes were a light grey color, or a very pale blue. They weren't even white. They were colorless. Not even clear. Just... nothing. Nothing was there. It was enough to horrify her down to the core, and when he smiled, she was horrified even more.

She than felt the gun moved to her chest, right in the center, were her heart was.

She was shocked to the point where she couldn't move. It all happen so fast that her brain hadn't had the chance to comprehend and think. She started to panic and try to struggle her way out under him, even though she knew it wasn't helpful.

The intruder laughed like a lunatic at her struggle. She felt truly helpless but kept trying. Soon, he took her by the arms and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of flour and stood.

He walked out of the room as she continued to scrabble out of his grasp. She held onto the door frame once he passed it. She lidded off of his shoulder, but he was able to grab her by the legs and yank.

She tried to kick him but he soon just pulled her away from the door frame, causing pain to her fingers as he dragged her down again, this time by her hair.

When they reached the steps he simply picked her up and tossed her down. She rolled roughly down all three levels of stairs. Her vision while falling was rapidly changing constantly, and pain shot through different spots on her body, to where it hit almost every area.

She felt and heard the breaking of her noise and possibly her arm. When she finally reached the ground floor she tried to get up and run but before she could even make the attempt to get up, he was there.

He lifted her up by her broken arm, ignoring her pernicious cry of pain, and dragged her off through the living room and kitchen. Amy saw a thin, light trail of her blood staining the floor and she prayed that this was a bad dream of some kind.

The man dragged her over towards the doors that entered her dinning room. She heard the clicking of the French doors, wondering what in the world was happening, and was thrown into the room, landing with a thump and another burst of pain.

She let out a quiet squeal of pain as she fought back her tears and the thumping of her head. She knew she was about to pass out soon, but fought against it still.

She opened her eyes, which she hadn't realized where closed in the first place. Her vision was blurry but she was able to make out the figure in front of her, the gun man. Then she looked around the room to find they weren't alone.

She saw fuzzy silhouettes, one in particular to her left. She could only tell a few features of it due to her failing sight.

Dark blonde hair, messy...a big red gash on the forehead... Dirty and messy clothes... He...he was saying her name...

"Dan?" she asked, trying to squirm over to him.

"Amy," he said, and she knew it was him. But before they could even touch each other, a gun shot was fired. A scream came out, but she wasn't sure it was her's or not.

She turned back to the gun man, who she could barley see clearly. His colorless eyes were filled with rage and chaos. Ruthless, merciless... In that moment, and for the rest of her life, Amy declared those the eyes of the devil himself.

"No physical contact." He slammed the door behind him. "None of you touches one another."

He than turned towards her again and she felt herself shiver. She wanted to get up and fight so badly, find a way for her and Dan to get out of the room, but the pain was clouding up her mind and her vision was still slightly hazy.

"You," he ordered her. "Get your back against the wall. Now."

Amy tried to lift herself up to scoot back but the pain racked through her body like a harsh wave. She winced.

"Now!" he screamed.

She still couldn't. Amy just couldn't fight back the pain, it was taking over her body. It was all she could focus on. She didn't even noticed the gun man storming over to her till she felt him kicked her right in the chest with a very strong force. Her landing was her back hitting against the wall, more pain devoured her body.

"Hey!" she heard Dan scream. "Don't you-!" He was cut off by the gun being pointing towards him, the barrel being only a few inches from his head. She saw him start to shake as the gun man pulled the gun away from him.

She than looked around her and found others. She knew them all... Hamilton was in the far corner, holding his red arm. Sinead was close by, she was shaking like Dan, staring at the gunman in total fear.

Jonah was to her left, he had his arms wrapped around himself like he was hugging himself. To her right was Atticus, who had a bad cut on his forehead and his large red glasses where shattered.

Next to him was Dan who was frozen in his position by fear. Than it was Ian who had small bloody cuts all over him. He, like everyone else, including Amy herself, were now staring at the gun man who was smiling evilly once again. She never seen someone or something so...evil in her life.

"This is how it's going to play out," his low voice spoke again. Amy could have sworn that his eyes never left hers.

"You all are going to confess your sins, your wrongdoing. And than I will let you go. You'll never see me again. As long as you do exactly as I say and as I want."

She didn't like the way he was looking at her, or at any of the others. He was a true mad man, no doubt about that, but something inside herself told her that she was mistaken. That she was far wrong about who or what this monster was.

That he was worse. So much worse.


	2. The Traitor

Chapter 2

The seven youthful Cahills sat on the itchy floor. No one was speaking, no noise whatsoever present in the absence of the bruit.

The clutch of them sat in vexation, some sitting in complete sereneness, others in constant shifting. Yet, no eye contact was made between any of the hostages, all of them keeping their heads down, hiding away the best they could.

No physical contact was made either, as they were all sure that the gun man would not hesitate on killing any of them. The despondent aura was strong and sensed by everyone as they all trepidation about breathing in the pestilential atmosphere.

Ian sat in his small spot that he mentally limited himself to, scanning the archaic room for the hundredth time, eminently straining himself to abscond the room, liberating himself and the others from this Pandemonium.

They been in the room for who knows how long. All the time Ian had been rummaging through the dinning area, making himself become nauseated of looking at the room, the ugly room. He was rebelling against his body's commands and refused to sleep. None of the others did either.

Ian's skin clawed and his stomach turned and growled. He felt drops of sweat run down his face at times. He gritted his teeth in anxiousness. He already chewed all the skin away from his bottom lip.

He felt the paranoia and claustrophobia burgeon inside him swiftly as each uncountable minute passed by. He was struggling to regulate his unsettling breathing. He felt confined, hopeless, and, for the first time in a long time, scared.

The room was dark, the only light coming from the glass of the French doors. Without it, he wouldn't be able to see the others. He barely could now. In the windows, that were covered by cream colored drapes, was the silhouette of the villain in all of this.

The gunmen had been in front of the doors the entire time, and the only time he had left was to go get Amy and dragging her into the room with the rest of them. He stood on the other side, watching them...through the threads of curtains, the glass of the window... observing their every move, breath...

Ian wasn't scared so easily. Hell, he's a Lucian, he's normally the one scaring, not the one on the other side of the trigger. Yet, he has never been so paralyzed with fear in his life. It wasn't the fact that the asshole was able to break into his house, hit him over the head with a candle holder, and then shot him with a dart gun and knocked him out. Hell, his stalkers did that in a weekly bases.

It's the fact that Ian was completely sure that he knew who the gunman was. There no doubt in his mind. He knew that man...yet, he didn't.

It was almost like it was..._him_..._the bastard_...

Just than the gunman's shadow on the curtain moved, the first time in what seemed like entirety. The door was clicked open and he came in. The gun was still in his hand and Ian, from his train, was positive that he had more on him somewhere on his body. It was hard to identify since he was only in a t shirt and jeans with muddy boots. He had that wild look in those lifeless eyes. It sent shivers down his spine.

He pulled out a bundle of strips of cloth from his pocket of his pants. Ian realized that they were blindfolds. He scrapped his feet across the room towards Amelia. He saw Dan watching the man with a glare, his hand in position besides him, like he was getting ready to pounce like a cat.

He saw Hamilton doing the same. Ian knew just like them if Amelia Cahill, the leader of the Madrigals, goes down here, the Cahills in general will go back to their old ways, if not worse.

Ian felt himself get ready for a fight himself as the man bent down and lifted Amy's head. Instead of hitting her, he wrapped a blindfold around her eyes. He went next to Dan and did then came to Ian.

Ian didn't know what possessed him to do it. It was just the fact that he felt like a corner animal and it cause him to flash out. He grabbed the man's hand that held the blindfold and dug his nails into his skin that was surprisingly hard as a iron. Ian then shove him back, causing him to take a step or two back and somewhat lose his balance for a second.

For a long moment, no one moved. Everyone was stunned, including Ian. Then, faster than light, the man reacted. He grabbed Ian by the collar, lifted him to where his feet weren't touching the ground, making him eye level with the beast, and than slammed his back against the wall. Pain waved through his body a great deal, and the pain increased as the man continued the beating five more times. Ian fell down the ground when the man let him go.

Spots danced before his eyes, he could hardly think without the pain making him groan and suffer. He didn't even see the man's foot rise and deliver a hard kick to Ian's chest. A loud snap was heard and Ian knew it was his rib. The pain was enough to conform it. The man wrapped the blindfold around his eyes roughly and slammed his head down back to the ground.

Ian just focused on inhaling and exhaling oxygen and carbon dioxide.

He finished his abuse and went on putting on blindfolds. Ian expected so, since he could still see.

"Who's first?" he growled. He glared around the room, his eyes driving into all of them.

No one spoke. Ian could tell the man was getting madder. He couldn't hear much since his heartbeat was in his ears, thumping loudly like a drum.

"How about you, lover boy?" he repined. Ian could hear his voice near him but not exactly at him.

"Or what about you, Monster?" he snarled at someone farther away.

Ian didn't know who he was talking to and he didn't care, he just wanted to get out of this hell hole.

"Oh, I know..." A moment of scraping passed. "You. The traitor."

The sound of footsteps doubled and ended quickly, going back to just two single steps. A sharp snapping then burst into the silence. A long moment. Ian wasn't sure if someone just died or not.

The silence almost became nerve racking till the man spoke again. "Miss Sinead Adeline Starling."

Sinead didn't respond. Traitor... Ian thought, of course, Sinead.

"Why don't you tell us about your life? Hmm?" the man asked, in a tone that sounded like he was mocking her, scowling her even.

"I don't have to tell you anything," she hissed at him. Rage and hatred boomed in her voice.

"Oh, but you do if you want to live." Ian didn't have to see to know he was probably gesturing his gun in some way. "Now talk." Sinead stayed silent.

"How was the clue hunt for you, Sinead?" the man finally questioned her. Ian almost flinched at the fact the man knew about the clue hunt.

"Was it short lived for you? Ended to soon?"

"Go to hell!" she screamed at him. She was still touchy on that topic, which was understandable.

"Tell us about the explosion." The man's tone turned colder. "Tell us how much it hurt. Tell us about the pain that you felt when it all came crashing down on you. You and your brothers."

A moment of silence.

"Didn't it hurt though? The way your head hit the floor like a ball. How the weight of the whole building just kept piling onto you. The bones in your body hurting, breaking. How the light of the sun and the breeze of the wind just stopped and disappeared..."

Sinead said nothing still. None of them did.

"And what about the aftermath about it all?" he teased her more, like this was a zit or pimple on her face instead about the thing that ruin her life. "After all that pain and misery, those test and treatments in the hospital by all those doctors and nurses, you were the one to come out completely fine. You, the worthless one."

"Shut up!" Sinead shouted again.

"But isn't it true?" he went on. "According to your parents, that is? How you, the worthless one, the worthless girl was saved over your genius, valuable brothers? Ted now blind. No longer able to draw out those amazing sketches that his brother, Ned, who now not think without getting a migrate, thought of. And that's all your fault. You didn't save them then, which cause them to be this now. They're handicapped forever and there no fixing them because of you. Because of the fuck up."

Sinead didn't say anything back. She was too busy holding back her sobs that were escaping her.

"Am I not right?!" the man shouted. A gun shot fired, the sound scaring Ian, causing him to flinch."ANSWER ME!" he screamed at her. Sinead cried more. Broken, tortured sobs slipping out of her.

"Say it back to me!" the man ordered. "Repeat it!"

"I...I'm the fuck up. I'm the one to blame for damage done to my brothers. I'm the reason why they are not the same today. I should have protected them better. They should be the ones to be okay...I'm the one who should have been damaged. The one to die there... to save them the suffering..."

Sinead was full on crying then. Her sobs were almost heartbreaking.

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry!" she screamed, in a blood curling, stomach tugging scream. Ian winced. The scream sounded so much like Natalie's...

"Shut up!" the man yelled at her. Sinead only cried more, her sobs so great she was hiccuping. Her own tears were stealing her undeserving breath of life.

Ian didn't know what to think about all of this. He knew about the explosion that put the Starling triplets in their condition. It was early into the clue hunt and it was just a miracle that they all escape with their lives. He also knew about Amy and Dan also being in that building at the time too. How they even warned the triplets and yet ignored them like the clueless contenders everyone assumed them to be at the time, Ian didn't know.

And was true, about it being her fault of not listening to them, but it wasn't her fault for everything else. And the fact that she was being blamed for it was total shit.

"DON'T MOVE!" the man suddenly shouted, his voice in a high pitch, startled almost. Ian himself jumped out of surprise. "NO CONTACT!"

Ian wished he really could see what was going on. He hoped that the man didn't shoot again. He hated the sound of a gun fire, it reminded him of too many people in his life.

"We're not done with her." the man's voice growled, became low, deep and mean. It was like the man turned to a beast, like he transformed into his true form.

"You fucked up more later in life when you came back into the hunt, didn't you?" the man sneered at her. "When you came back, you were gunning for the serum, like everyone else. The only thing you cared about was getting that serum, the prize. You were so obsessed with it. And the reason why you put them there was because you wanted that serum-"

"For them! The serum was to cure them!" Sinead screamed in her broken voice.

"Bullshit!" the beast roared. "You wanted that serum for yourself! So you could be better then them! So you could finally be the better one!"

"You're wrong!" Sinead cried.

"No, I'm not! You did it to make yourself look better towards your parents, your branch. And what did you do? You fucked up again and have in your part the clues! You all did!" he suddenly started yelling at all of them.

Another long moment of silence passed and it felt like he was pointing a gun at all of them. Ian started to shake again with anxiety.

"What was your excuse again for that little act in the end, traitor?" he hissed at Sinead, the beast's voice still balefully gloomy. Sinead didn't answer.

"Was it the right thing to do? As a family?" The beast then laughed like a manic. "And than how were you going to cure Ned and Ted? Huh? With the plans they came up with?"

Sinead didn't respond but Ian guessed that she probably answered by nodding.

"How did that turn out for you? Hmm? Tell them, Sinead. Tell them how all those idea and plans failed. And it was still your fault for there disabilities. Their pain and humiliation was all because of their fuck up baby sister... but then, he came along, didn't he?"

The mood of the room changed with the sudden rise of confusion and wonder and suspension. The air became as sharp as glass, like one move or breath and you would be bleeding.

"Tell us about him, Sinead."

The beast's voice was now worse, yet Ian wasn't sure how. His voice became light, speeding up the rate somewhat. It wasn't taunting, yet not kind. It was pure disgust, almost. Like Sinead was the revolting one.

"Tell us about how you just randomly got a call from him one day. How he said he had a cure for your brothers and to meet him at the park if you were interested. So you did. You did what you were told, like the little slave you were then. And even before you signed up for it all."

The beast chuckled like a disappointed father. "You met him and..."

"And he offered me a deal. He said the Vespers would rise and become the most powerful, the richest. After they take down the Cahills..."

Sinead's voice turned smaller, softer. Like she was lost in thought, memories even.

"And that they would help Ted and Ned if I helped them. An eye for an eye."

"More like a heart for a heart. Ambit it, Sinead, you joined because you liked him straight away, didn't you?"

"Yes," she said, emotionless. "Yes. I really did."

"He charmed you right away. His soft brown hair...those fetching Hazel eyes...that strong voice. He was in charge, and he knew it."

"Yes."

"And that's when he took advantage of your little mind, your small brain. You two made a deal. You, befriend and move in with the Cahills, the top ones in that case. And sell out all their secrets you collect about them."

"It was for my brothers-"

"It was for his attendant as well. Correct?"

A moment of silence. "Yes."

"Because you really liked him, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And then he liked you too, didn't he? He was a fun guy when you got him away from his work. Not such a hard ass, was he?"

"Yes..."

"It was all for Ned and Ted at first, but as time passed, more time with him... well, he became apart of it too, right?"

"Yes."

"And soon, you and he made plans for each other, in the future. When he was ruling the world and you were by his loving side, you and your cured brothers, you two would live together in love and peace. Everything would be perfect, you would finally be accepted and loved by someone. But, after you got caught and you saw the Vespers were losing-"

"He told me he would finish with his work," Sinead spoke up, he voice harder, more stable. Her stubbornness self was coming back. "Dave w-"

"Oh no!" the beast cut her off. "Not Dave, honey. Say his real name."

"Damien," she forced the word out, "wanted me safe. On the winning side. He wanted me to live..."

A long time passed were no one spoke. Ian and Hamilton had found her email to Vesper 1 and somewhat assumed that there was a romantic relationship between them, but he never expected this.

"And so you did," the beast spoke. "Like the little fuck up coward you are. If you really loved him, you would have stayed by his side. You would have cared about his work, too. If you really did love him, you wouldn't bare to live without him. True?"

"I did love him," Sinead said. She admitted it like a beaten down victim. "I still do..."

"You have a extremely odd way of showing it," the beast growled. "You're disgusting. You're horrible and you're a disgrace to both the Vespers and Cahills. You're unwanted by both groups and, as far as I'm concerned, should be dead, with your lover or by yourself. You don't deserve to live."

And with that, the beast hit Sinead in someway. It sounded like a slap to Ian. The beast took six steps out the room and back to his position to the door.

Soon, Sinead started to cry again. Ian took off his blindfold to see the redhead sitting on the ground, crying her eyes out, her face in her hands as she sobbed. He felt truly sorry for the girl.

He had some empathy for her too, since he grew up and was treated the same way growing up with his parents.

Amy took off her blindfold and went over to Sinead and held her into a hug as she cried. He was about to tell them about the rule of no touching till he saw that the man wasn't at the door anymore.

The door was locked with many locks but no one was watching them. He wasn't sure if that was a relief or not.

Ian soon felt like he was being watched. He turned his head to the left and met eyes with Dan Cahill. Dan pointed his eyes and head up towards the ceiling. Ian followed and found the ceiling fan, that had a open hole at the base of it...

Dan nodded when Ian nodded to him that he understood. The younger male than pointed to his head, telling him to think about it. Ian nodded again.

How could they escape through the hole in the ceiling without getting caught or hurt?


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** I didn't send this to my beta reader so sorry for any grammar mistakes and all that jazz. This chapter is suppose to cause a few laughs since the last one was a little tense.

Before you read, here is my statement to clear things: I have no problems with gays and if you do get defended about anything that was written, I am very sorry and I will take it away from the chapter, if you contact me about it. Also, if this seems to cross the rating line, please tell me so and I will fix it. I'm trying my best to not insult anyone in anyway because all I want to do is share my writing with those who are willing to read it. I want nothing more.

Thanks again. Please review because those are always welcome. Enjoy.

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Chapter 3

Daniel Cahill was in hell. He really was. This must be his punishment for all those pranks he done to Amy in the past. Or whenever he blew up the kitchen.

One part of himself kidded at that statement. The other, the darker side, only sneered. _You know exactly what you did to deserve this... You deserve worse..._

He knew that side was right. That side was always right. He called that his Amy side...

The dark room seem to get brighter once the man left, which was accurate since the was the exact thing to cause suppose darkness to anyone's life. He certainly has to all of theirs'.

For the past three days, from his calculations so give or take a few, he had sat in that room, that completely silence room and try to think of a way to get the hell out of there, it was the only thing to keep his mind off of what he knew was coming.

The man, before the three days, had meanly warned them about their confessions, their sins, theirwrong doings... He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about his parents, or of Alistair, or of all of the people's lost lives he was responsible for...

He turned to his friend Atticus and saw that he was already looking for a way out of there. He turned to the Lucian of the room and singled him to do so too. He was about to do the same to Hamilton till he saw that his friend was crawling over the best he could to Amy and Sinead. Sinead was sobbing on Amy's hurt arm and she was about to cry herself if she didn't stop, but they all knew that the Ekat couldn't and didn't need to.

Dan, himself, never seen Sinead cry and it was obvious that she hasn't cried about this for a while- possibly ever-and she deserved to have a little break down. Considering all she had been through, all that she kept buried down, deep inside her, and till now, where it all came out in a cruel, embarrassing treatment...Especially when none of it was true, that none of it was her fault... It sadden him greatly but also scared the holy hell out of him.

Ham took her and carried her the best he could over to the space between him and Jonah. The Janus checked her arms and legs for injures as Ham gave her his arm to squeeze. She was in pain in more ways then one.

Amy scooted over to Dan and sat down to his right. His older sister was in serious pain as well. He didn't know what the man did to her, but he was positive it was good enough for the young man to kill him over. Her face was bruised in multiple places, like someone drew over a picture of her with purple, blue, and red markers. Her arm was badly injured, mostly likely spared or broken. She was also missing a few nails on her fingers, an her nose was slightly crooked.

"We have to get out of here." She stated. He voice was muffed with pain, like even her vocal cords were bruised.

No shit, Sherlock. Dan thought and then slapped himself mentally for being rude towards his sister. She was just trying to do her job.

"We have an idea." Atticus spoke up. "Dan and I, I mean. We saw tha-"

"You might not want to say." Ian cut him off. "You never know who might be watching or listening in at any time."

Dan was about to point out to the snake that the man was gone from the door, but he then realized what he meant. He looked around the room again. He saw nothing that could be a camera but that didn't mean that there weren't any inside the wall.

"Cameras in my walls..." Amy shook her head. "Can't even be free in my own freaking house." She didn't show it much but Dan could tell she was mad, from her hands that were balled into fists.

"I hate being a Cahill." Jonah stated plainly.

"Ditto." Dan agreed with him.

"How did all of you get in here?" Amy questioned. "I know he brought you all here but still..."

"He got me the night before in my lab, in my house." Sinead admitted. Her voice returned back to her usual steel-hard, confident tone. She was trying to show that she was still strong, like she didn't just have a public melt down in front of them. "It was late and I was working on mixing up some chemicals when I just suddenly got lightheaded and fall down. I blacked out and when I woke up, I was here."

"I was at the field with Madison." Ham begin to tell them. Dan realized that they just transformed into a sharing circle. This was somewhat strange...yet, comforting. "I was helping her with soccer, with her control over the ball. She left to get another ball because the other one popped...don't ask... And out of nowhere, I was tackled to the ground. And it _hurt_. And the asshole kept banging my head against the goal pole, and, of course I fought back and somehow hurt my shoulder and than he just put a napkin to my nose and I was out."

"That's crazy." Jonah commented. "I was in my tour bus with a fan... And it turned out to be him... As a girl..."

"What was a fan doing in your tour bus?" Ian raise a brow at the Janus, fighting back a smile the best he could. Jonah only merely smiled, a bright red blush bloomed onto his face. Ham howled in laughter. Dan fought back his smile the best he could because Amy would have hit him if he didn't. Atticus blushed and Ian smirked, shaking his head and muttering "Bloody hell" under his breath.

"Well, how did you get here, Kabra?" Jonah asked, slightly embarrassed.

"I heard a crash in my dinning hall and found a broken glass. He hit me with a candle holder when my back was turned." He explained.

"The great Ian Kabra, taken down but a candle holder." The rapper teased.

"That least I wasn't smooching with a guy, hoping to get-"

"OKAY!" Amy put her hands up. All the boys snickered at Jonah's red face again. Amy's face was red too, and Sinead was covering her's with her hands. Dan turned to Atticus who was also trying his best not to snicker too much, but was failing.

Dan saw Amy glance a dirty glare over to Ian, like a mother would do to a disobedient child. Ian only winked at her in responses.

"Hey, at less I can get to second base with a girl!"

"But you didn't! You got to second base with a-"

"OKAY!" Sinead shouted, cutting off Ham. The boys laughed again, Dan and Atticus now with them.

"Atticus," Sinead pointed to him, after the boys finally settled down. "How did you get into this mess?"

"Well, I was eleven when I met Dan online." Everyone bursted into laughs that time. Dan shot a fake glare at his friend.

"Okay, okay." He started. "I was at home in Rome. I was peacefully reading my book when I suddenly feel like I'm being watched. I looked up to my ceiling and I was intensely sprayed in the face with something. Then I was here." He turned to him. "And you?"

"Well," Dan breathed in a sadden tone, trying to lighten the mood. "I was at the movie theater with Nellie. She just finished her deed of torturing me for the night, or, in other words, making me see that new Romeo and Juliet movie. Once we were finished, she went out to get the car and pull it up because it was raining and, well, the exact same car came up to me."

"The big dent in the right door an everything?" Amy asked.

"Yes, and I got in and before I even buckled up, he hit me with something and I was out." Dan finished.

"Was it a candle holder?" Jonah asked.

"By Jonah's new lover?" Ian teased back and the boys laughed again.

"GUYS!" Sinead cried again. Boys laughed again as Amy and her rolled their eyes.

"There is nothing wrong with being gay, correct?" She pointed to Ian. Ian nodded in agreement.

"Correct?" Ham agreed and so did Dan and Atticus. "Good."

"Now apologize." Amy ordered, mainly to Ian.

"I apologize Jonah. I'm just joking with you. No harm was meant by it."

"It's okay, man."

"Okay, now that we have that cleared." Amy said. "Lets get back to the subject. How are going to get out of here?"

"Well, from what I gather," Atticus spoke. "We could go up." He pointed up to the ceiling. "Or we could go out the door."

"But what if he's out there waiting for us? He'll shoot us." Ham stated.

"How many bullets does he have left?" Amy asked.

"Five, if he didn't load a few extra." Ian answered.

"Amy, are you sure there is no secret exit of some sort around here." Jonah asked.

"Positive. Those are in the kitchen and my bedroom." She shrugged.

"So were stuck with the ceiling option." Ham said.

"We can't use that unless we rip the fan out and that could cause the whole ceiling to fall on us." Sinead conformed.

"So what do we do?" Jonah asked anyone in the room.

Dan began to think as he looked around the room of a way out. He couldn't think of anything till his eyes gleam over to the five foot long and six foot tall china shelf that Ian was leaning against.

"Amy," Dan poked her. "What's on the other side of that wall?"

Amy thought for a moment. "My garage."

"Is your garage empty?"

"Mostly." She said. "It has my car but that's it."

"Are you sure?" Dan asked "Nothing on the walls?"

"No, nothing."

"And what is above us?" He pointed to the ceiling.

"My guest bedroom." Amy answered, now looking at him like she didn't understand.

"Where is your guest bedroom from your main bedroom?"

"Right across the hall."

"Does your bedroom have a window in it? One looking out towards the road?"

"Yes." She nodded. "What are you thinking, Dan?"

"I have an idea!" Dan was now grinning ear to ear. He now had everyone's attention. He looked over to Atticus and knew, from the look in his eyes, that he was following what he was planning.

"What is it?" Sinead asking. Dan could tell she was starting to see what he was visioning.

"If you stand in the street and look at Amy's house from the front, you'll see the garage to the right. On top of that is a bit of a roof, and then the window in Amy's bedroom. So if Amy is right about where everything is, then someone small could climb up to the ceiling, to the guest bedroom floor, go out the door and across the hall to Amy's bedroom, go in, climd out the window, run on the roof, get down onto the ground in front of the garage door, get inside, and then get into Amy's car and hit the petal to the metal and-"

"You want to drive my car into the wall!?" Amy howled in shock. "Are you trying to destroy my house!?"

"I'll buy you a new house, if it gets us out of here!" Dan shouted back in protested.

"If we don't die from your plan first!" Sinead sided with Amy. "It's completely..._Mad!_"

"Daniel," Ian called for him. "As much as your plan sounds fill proof, there is still no guarantee that the force of the car hitting the wall will not kill us."

"It's better then dying in here." Dan knew was a stupid excuse, and he sound somewhat childish but he wanted a plan to get out somehow and no one else had anything.

"I thought the meaning of it all was to get out alive! Isn't that the definition of surviving?!" Ham asked.

"Beside, Sinead stated it earlier. The ceiling might fall completely on us and kill us that way." Jonah added.

"That's why we need someone small, so we don't need to make a bigger hole then we have now." Dan said and than turned to Atticus. He was now against his own plan, since it was putting his own best friend in danger.

"Never mind, we can't do it. Too dangerous." Dan said.

"No! Dan," Atticus held up his hand. "I can do it."

"You can't drive Atticus." Dan said.

"Yeah but I don't need to." He defended. "I just hit the gas and-"

"We all die?" Sinead finished.

"Okay," Ian called for a moment. "The plan is good till the car part. What if we use something else that wouldn't have so much force that it could possibly run us over and kill us."

"Like a sledgehammer?" Ham asked.

"Sure!" Atticus answered. "Amy, do you have a sledgehammer in your garage?"

"I don't have a sledgehammer, period." She bit he lip. "Sorry. I have a shovel. Will that help?"

"It might." Sinead stated. "But still, even then... No offense, Atticus, but you're not that strong."

"Okay," Amy clapped her hands. "On the same wall that will knocked down, is a door that opens up to the-"

She suddenly stopped speaking. The sound of her voice was replaced by the sound of foot steps, heavy and bulky. Soon, the man came into vision at the door. He open the door and came in, gun in hand. He took two more steps and then stopped. He stood there for a good solid moment, staring straight ahead, at him and Amy, before blinking. Dan thought his cruel eyes were looking into both of their souls.

Nothing was said. No one made attempt of so. Dan never heard silence so dreadful before.


	4. The Winner

Dan was centimeters away from losing _his fucking mind_.

For the pass two day, the man had been standing there, watching, staring at him and Amy. He stood there, only three feet away, and just disgustingly queer at them.

Dan was going mad. He needed to get out of his sight. He couldn't stand it. The constant staring was about to make him snap like a twig. He needed to get out of his colorless glare. He needed to get out of here.

Dan was holding onto Amy's hand tightly. He was literally squeezing the life out of her pawn and she was close to breaking all his fingers. He was trying his best to control his breathing. He was trying his bet to keep his stomach quiet. He was trying his best to not shit his jeans. He was trying his best not the kill himself.

The fear and anxiety was about to blew up inside him, like a grenade. He stared to quiver about two hours ago, and now was full out shaking with no hope in stoping himself. He was in the continuous game of his treacherous self will failing him with the man. He would look away from him the best he could for as long a he could, desperately trying to avoid those inhumane eyes- those savage eyes- those tintless eyes that wouldn't go away.

But, no matter how long he manage to make it out, he would loose his self-control and turn back to the cruel being and look again at those nocuous eyes that were staring straight back at him, like they were when he turned away. They never left him.

It was killing him, driving him to be a total nutcase.

_Those eyes... The holder of those eyes_... He knew what Dan has done.

He knows about his parents. He knows about Grace. He knew about Irina. He knows about Lester. He knows about McIntyer. He knew about everyone in Dan life that he failed. Everyone he was responsible for once and how they, because of him, were now dead.

He gripped onto Amy tighter. He was about to get it next, he knew it. The man was about to speak to Dan and make him confession his sins about his life. He had more then anyone really knew. He was about to get it. Everyone would hate him then. Everyone would look at him differently then. He only hoped that Amy would stay by him.

_God, please... I can't be left alone. Please! _Dan pleaded. He was so scared. He was ready yet done with it all. He just wanted to be loved. That's all. _God, please! Please!_

He could feel the tears rushing to his eyes, building up slowly, till they finally spilled over onto his face. That's will be the time when the man finally takes his toll and divulges all of his faults. That's when Dan will loose all the rest of the people he cared for in his life. Just like he lost the others.

It was just the fact Dan couldn't tell what his eyes were saying. In a light they could have been disgusted with him. In an other, they were pleased by him and his god awful work of destroying people's lives by ending them. And then there was a light were the man was dreaming about what he was going to do to Dan, how he was going to make him suffer and how he was going to enjoy it so much.

Just then, the man looked away from them, his eyes finally parted away from Dan and Amy. Dan suddenly could breath again and silently gasp for air like a silent hallelujah. He gripped Amy tighter before loosening a little. She did the same and breathed along with him.

The man turned back to them and smiled evilly. The oxygen in Dan's lung was suddenly sucked out. The man was in that position again for a good mind shattering, nerve racking five minutes before turning away again and pulling out the dreadful blindfolds.

_Here it comes..._Dan thought. _This is the end of the love I have from these people... God, please don't take Amy away... Anyone but her._

The very thought made him want to die.

The man started to go around the room and put blindfolds onto the others. First it was Hamilton, then Sinead, then Jonah and so on. He finished with Amy and skipped Dan and when to Atticus and then Ian. Dan's heart was thumping in his chest and his mouth was now dried.

Once he was done with Ian, he turned back to Dan and stared at him yet again. Dan couldn't explain how he felt. It had no words to fully describe the fear, the solace, the self-disgust, the worry, and the pure pain. Dan was ready for him, but so much relief washed over him when the man put the blindfold on him and the young boy listen to him walk away to the other side of the room.

Dan felt like crying with pure joy till he heard the very loud thump somewhere in front of him. He than realized what he has just done and guilt racked him.

"Hamilton Pierre Holt." The man spoke, the first time in a while. "The Winner..."

"I want to shove my foot up your ass." Ham stated very clearly "but I'm afraid you would have liked that."

Dan held his breath till he heard the man speak again.

"Funny man, hurts a little through. But that's what you do, you hurt. Just like the bully you always were."

"Yeah, so?" Dan knew what Ham was doing, and found it to be working due to the man's tone of voice.

"A bully who always went too far. Like blowing up the museum the Starlings were in?" Ham was silent.

"After you burnt down Grace Cahill home, right? And then how you came so close to killing her grandchildren on multiple occasions, just for the fucking clues, right?"

"That's all-" Just then a hard, clingy smack rang out and Dan realized that Ham was just slapped with the gun.

"You tried to kill them. And everyone else, right? But especially them... Because they made you and your family look bad. Like the complete dolts you all are."

"We are no-" Ham was slapped again.

"That and you were just trying to made Daddy proud, right?"

Ham didn't speak this time and it made Dan nervous. He knew about Ham trying to prove himself to his father during the hunt but that was fixed. His father loved him, still does. He understood his mistakes and now him and his son were just fine.

"He, the dumbest one out of the bunch, succeeded in killing someone, actually two." The man snarled at the Tomas.

Dan felt Amy's hand squeeze the life out of his. He really didn't want to talk about this he really didn't want to think about it. Ham was his friend. It wasn't his fault. His father turned his ways and said sorry. Eisenhower and Mary-Todd weren't like Isabel, they actually regretted there mistake.

"Yet, his wimpy, weak son couldn't even burn down a dead woman's house without chickening out. Yes, at the time, it was too late but still..." The man then chuckled cruelly. "So much for a brave Tomas. So much for a Honorable Holt." He snarled.

There was some sounds of rough movement before another slap. Dan guessed Ham tried to punch him but, since he was blindfolded, missed.

"Another one and I'll shoot you!" The man screamed, demanding control. There was a pause before the man continued.

"So you tried to prove that you were, which failed epically. You couldn't even kill a little old man without getting scared." The man laughed again. "In fact, you did the opposite, you saved him. You saved the two Madgricals-the Madgricals- in the competition, and befriended them. You betrayed your family that way. You disgraced the name."

Dan could hear Ham heavily breathing, trying to control his anger so he could live for another day. Another day in this hellhole...

"Then, you made the worst mistake of all. You gave up your clues. The clues your family worked and struggled for, the clues of your own branch... All thrown away for your two new little friends."

The end of the speech as snarled towards Dan and Amy. Dan could hear so.

"You humiliated your family. You're the disgrace. You betrayed your family, your branch... Just like grandpa, right?"

Ham let out a scream in frustration, but did not kill the man. Dan understood why he was so mad. The Tomas did give Ham a lot of crap from his actions in the gauntlet at first, calling him every name in the book. Ham thought he was at first, but the Tomases soon saw the light and forgave him. They praised him, even. He even had a shot at being the next branch leader.

But there was still that scent of guilt of what he had done, that light of what he done was possibly wrong. That if all the branches didn't work out in the end that it would have been all his fault entirely. Dan has had the same feeling of doubt and fear himself.

Dan had heard about Hamilton's grandfather, Buchanan Holt, and how he was classed as a traitor, but no one knew why, not even Ham or his sisters. But still, it isn't his fault.

Ham growled very darkly at the man. "You're going to be one sorry son of a bitch once I get my hands on you." He threaten.

"Is that so?" The man snickered, like wasn't at all afraid of the buff, mad man that he was framing.

"I did it all because it was the right thing to do!" Ham shouted at the man, his anger slowly coming out. "I did it for the best, the best for my family! It was for the best for the Madgricals to have the clues! I was thinking of my family- that's all I cared about, my parents and my sisters!"

"If you began to even consider your family at the time, you would have saw that you were ruining them! You literally crumbled there reputations as a whole! You failed them!"

"I saved them!" Han fought back.

"You shunned them! Your own mother is ashamed of you! Your sisters don't even talk to you anymore because you betrayed them and went your own way, without them. And your own father is completely despised to have you as a son!"

"That's a lie!" Ham screamed. Dan could almost hear the pain in his voice. "They love me! They're my family!"

"THAT YOU FAILED!"

Dan was expecting Ham to jump up and hit him, to have the fight started. He would get up and help his friend, and hopefully they could take the man down... But nothing happened. There was no punches thrown to be heard or enraged screams. The only thing Dan heard was his friend rep early gulping, trying his best to hold back his sobs.

"Then..." The man began again. "Then you let it happen. You let it to occur and you didn't even cared."

"Yes I did!" Ham yelled again. His voice was rough but still deep and hate filled. "I always cared!"

"Then why did you let her go alone?Hmm, big guy? Why would anyone who cares, in the slightest bit, let a thirteen year old girl travel to Jamaica, alone? Especially when the girl was there own little sister?" The man questioned him in a lower, softer voice, but there was no symphony or concern in his tone or words.

"I-I didn't know she would get kidnapped!" Ham defended himself. His voice was stronger now but Dan could tell he was about to break down. None of this was his fault, yet so much guilt and pressure and fear came with everything the man has mention. It would effect anyone in the same way, no matter who they are.

"Still Holt!" The man stated in a hatred tone, that was very harsh and cruel. "That was your sister! Your baby sister! Who let's there baby sister go to strange country alone? Even when your parents asked you to go with her, you said what?"

Ham was silent. The man reappeared himself. "You said what!?"

"I said no, because I wanted to go to take a tour at Notre Dome..." Ham confessed with so much sadden in his voice that it even hurt Dan to hear it. That was his friend, one of his best, and he was being blamed for things that weren't his fault. It just wasn't...right.

"So Reagan, all alone and defenseless, went to train for the summer Olympics and got taken away from the evil Vespers. Who were more then willing, more like hoping, to kill her at the first chance they could get." The man teased the Tomas. "Remember how badly your mother cried when she got the news, and everyday after that? How low spirited your father was? How all the happiness went away on his eyes, right with his little girl? How your sister felt so alone in the world without her twin? How all they lives shattered again, all because of you."

"I-I.." Ham couldn't speak. He was fighting back all he could to not look weak and give the man what he wanted.

"You,"The man sneered. "Couldn't take it, not like a man anyway. So you left to look for her, to help your so called friends and family. You went to runaway from your mistake."

"I went away to help!" Ham shouted back. "I wanted Reagan back too!"

"You went to escape your error, your _second_ error." The man corrected him. "You were lucky to get your sister back, or you would have lost everyone else too."

"Th-that..." Ham couldn't get it out and yelled slightly in aggravation because of so. Most of it was from his guilt and regret.

"You're a disgrace to your family. Nothing more then fucking trouble, and you know it. Damn assholes like you... I hate people like you. The ones who just don't care."

With that, footsteps followed and a shutting noise of the door. Dan took off his blind fold and look over to his friend who had his hands in fists and his head down. Dan stood and walked over to him and sat beside him, throwing his arm onto the older man's shoulder. Ham put him head on his shoulder, and finally let it all out. He finally stopped fighting his overwhelming emotions and surrendered, letting the tears go.

His sobs were heart aching to Dan and he didn't like it. At all.

"It's not your fault, man." Dan said aloud. "He's wrong. He's completely wrong. It's not your fault, none of it."

"Yes it is." Ham cried. "She's my _sister_... _My sister!._.. How _could_ I?..." He cried more. Dan couldn't say anything else himself.

He knew the feeling all to well.


	5. The Monster

Atticus wasn't sure how to take everything in. He wasn't even sure that he could.

He was trapped in a room with six other people- Cahills- and was being cruelly interrogated by a psycho man with a gun and he seemed to be very trigger happy. There was no food or water, or any way to know what day it was. And they weren't going to get the hell out of there unless they confessed all of their crimes and sins or they find a way to escape.

Okay, now he had it. He just needed a moment to comprehend his death in the near future.

Atticus took off his blindfold to find Hamilton Holt, the strongest individual he had ever encountered in his life, with his head in his hands and his whole body shaking with unsettled emotions.

Dan was the first one up for the Tomas. He almost ran over to the older boy, soon throwing his arm over his shoulder the best he could and than let him just sob on his shoulder. The young mans sobs were the only sound to fill the room for the next day or so. When he finally ran out of tears, the dreadful silence was back.

Normally, Atticus enjoyed some peace and quiet, but not like this. Not where all of them were quiet because they didn't know if they would live, that they would have the blessed heightened of a predominant miracle that escaping this ghastly Gehenna would provide. They hated the quietness- and will hate it for the rest of his life. It would be nothing more then a perpetually, crucially vicious reminder of this.

This. Of how he sat in that damn despondent room, the disconsolately replica his undependable onerous death with the horror insanely swelling, nearly combusting his body to the close point of suffocation, almost drowning from within himself with the fearsome afflictions and finally killing him off before there terrorist did so. It be a much less hellish death, defiantly faster and less painful.

He really just couldn't stand it- the fact that he wasn't the only one thinking of this. He was sickened by the fact.

He hated- he loathed- how he could easily just glance, possibly even visionless sense the ungodly tremulous, the trembling agitational in their eyes and their facial expressions that reflected the collective hopeless fret they all were being emotionally and mentally swallowed entirely by their confessions. Their past.

Atticus had been scared of this before he was dragged in here, but he never feared it like this. He never feared anything like he did with this.

And that's what made him so weak, what made him suffer the most out of this whole torture gathering. He never wanted to be scared again in his life after the whole Vesper War. He vowed to himself that he would never put himself in that position again- he couldn't. He was just so scared of losing his brother or Dan or Amy. He could easily be along with the other Cahills that were kidnapped. He could have been with his mother again...

It was like a disease that was consuming him alive. Devouring him- eating him off little by diligently little. It was like an invisible beast that was always in his blind spot, slowly clawing him from his back and traveling to the rest of his body. It was like reliving his mother's death all over again but twenty times slower. It was the worst feeling he ever had in his life. And it just wouldn't go away.

Dan soon returned to his spot beside him and Hamilton went back to his with his head down low in total shame and embarrassment.

Two days passed. The man never showed up in that period of time. None of them spoke either. They didn't even discus an escape plan. No one did anything, really. Atticus wasn't even sure that they trusted themselves to breath without causing a scene.

The silence gave Atticus time to think of what the man exactly wanted him to ambit. It took awhile but he soon came to the answer in his mind and wanted to get the hell out even more.

Usually someone would just assume or already know what they would be blame for if they were in his and the others position, but Atticus just discovered it because he didn't like remembering it. He didn't want to think about it, much less talk about the secretive crime he did to his best friend and his family that basically took them in, and, even before then, accepted them as a member. He hating knowing that he betrayed them in the way he did, and it burned him inside his soul even more that they had no idea of it.

They didn't have a _single clue._ It was like the perfect crime that Jake tried to pull off, but the difference between them, like in everything else, is that Atticus succeed without trying as he failed miserably.

Once Atticus realized his deed, the memory took over his mind and wouldn't leave no matter what the boy did. He would try to think of everything and anything. He would silently recite the famous speeches throughout the years in his head. He would make up chemical equations and solve them. He would image himself free and away from the hellhole this damn room was. But it all lead back to what he was about to get...

And he shivered at the thought of being in the center, everyone listening to him as he gets railed by the man. The only difference would be Atticus would be sobbing, but no one would come to comfort him. They would be filled with anger and wouldn't care about him anymore. They would leave him for the gunman to take him. They had the chance. He knew it- like he knew everything else.

He dwelled on this for those two days till the man came back into the room. He walked in with the pistol still in hand and the blindfolds in the other. Atticus tried to avoid his lifeless eyes as much as possible. Soon, the man took a long good look at them all, like he was debating to kill them now or to have fun with them first. He than began his usual thing of putting the blind folds on each one of them. Sinead didn't look up to him, but Hamilton glared at him with rage in his blue eyes.

Soon, he was over to Atticus after Amy and Dan and he actually smiled evilly down to him. His eyes were...were...hell he didn't even know how to describe them. He just knew that he was next and the man couldn't wait to take him in.

Atticus started shaking then. His heart was thumping out his chest and his brain was racking up inside his head, almost like he was about to faint.

He felt a grip take hold on his shoulder, a painfully squeezing motion right above his elbow. He let out a yelp of fear and actually jumped back in fright. He was about to fight back, kick and scream and just try to stay out of that center till he realized he wasn't being dragged away and the man was laughing at him like he was a stupid fool.

The man soon let go of his arm and ended his laughter as he travel away from Atticus who was on the edge of tears with total embarrassment and relief. He wasn't sure if he was happy or horrified that he man let go.

"Come on, Monster," the man finally spoke up. "It's your turn."

The sound of a body being dragged over to the center lasted for a few seconds and then the silence came back. Atticus remembered the man mentioning the name Monster to someone before, at the very first trail of cruelty.

"Jonah Wolfgang Wizard," the man sneered at him, his voice full of disgust, like Jonah was nothing more then a smelly dead rotten. "The monster. The happy monster."

Atticus knew what the man was getting at. Hatred grew inside him, mentally screaming at the man that it wasn't Jonah's fault and it wasn't a blame that should be laid at his feet, but the young boy didn't have the courage to do so. Neither did anyone else.

"How is life for you Jonah?" The man began. His voice seemed to be oozing of fake interest and innocent concern. "Was it good? Having a rich, famous mother who was huge in the art industry and one of the three branch leaders at the time and then a father who was always there for you, to caught you if you fell off your bike or so. Seems like the perfect family, right?"

Jonah didn't answered. Atticus didn't know a lot about the topic of Jonah's household. All he knew was that it wasn't perfect.

"Picture perfect, correct? Well, on the outside, at least. And that was all that mattered, right Jonah? Right, like it should be. No one needs to know about the fact that, most of the time, your mother wasn't even there for you. That she was always out for her legacy in her art or her legacy in the Janus Branch. She couldn't have something as valueless, as unimportant as you to be what's left of her in the world- the Cahill world- when she's gone. What a cruel, ignominious shame that would be on her name."

Jonah remained silent till that moment. "I know this," he snapped at the man, anger oozing out of his voice. "Just get to the fucking point in all of this."

The man went on like he never even heard the boy. "And the times your mother was there, she didn't pay you any attention. Why would she? She didn't even like you as a person, much less her own child. Why should she give you anything more then a sideways glance? You were there until she needed you, and that wasn't it yet."

"Shut up!" the Janus screamed. "I said, shut up!"

"But daddy didn't like that now, did he? He was, indeed, the weaker one out of the marriage. Having children made him that way. It also ruined his dreams of being a famous musician. To have fame and fortune... but you ruined that for him, didn't you?"

"I swear to fucking god...," the rapper muttered in a mean tone.

"Anyway, your parents fought a lot when they were together, didn't they? Whenever your mother was home, and all she did was work, your father got mad and they would start screaming at each other, in raging fits."

"SHUT UP!" Atticus heard Jonah ordered him.

He even heard him jump to his feet and harshly march over to the man, probably taking of his blindfold in the process. "YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING, SO SHUT THE HELL UP!"

The yell made the room silent. The man himself didn't say anything at first, most likely stunned like he was before with Ian. But then, oh god, Atticus could hear the man viciously, mercilessly grin at Jonah.

"And this is how you reacted to all of that, right? You were being ignored. No one was listening to you and your cries or your needs. So you decided to take matters into your own hands. You started to act up. You started to misbehave in every way you could. You broke things. You didn't listen to anyone. I mean, why would you, _they_ didn't even listen to _you._ You even went into your mom's office and destroyed some of her most precious paintings. Literally ripping them apart and throwing them against the wall, breaking the wooden canvases to bits. It felt good, didn't it? It really felt good when you finally got her attention, didn't it?"

The man stopped for a short moment before continuing. Jonah didn't say anything.

"And that's when she finally did it. That's when she finally hit you. A slap across the face. Like this?"

Just then, a snapping sound broke out, followed by a heavy object hitting the ground. Jonah let out a groan of pain. The man wasn't done, though. A striking hitting sound took place, Jonah crying out in pain after each shot. There was some ruffing sounds, like the man was struggling with the beating, like Jonah was fighting back against him. But a single cracking sound came in and the fighting stopped.

"Jonah!?" Sinead cried out for him. A gunshot immediately followed after her call. For a moment, no one said a thing. Atticus thought that Jonah was dead. He thought Sinead was dead now. Two people dead right before him and he didn't see a single bit of it.

"Another one, girl, and I won't miss," the man threatened in a dark voice. Sinead was alive.

"Now back to you, Monster," the man snarled at Jonah who was hopefully still alive. Atticus heard a low moan of pain and a huff of an angry sigh being let out. He was alive. _Jonah was alive._

"It was that hit, wasn't it, Monster? That hit, that hurtful slap, that finally proved to you about your mother. That slap was enough evidence for you to finally realize that she didn't love you. That she didn't care for you. You played second violin to her work, her power, her positions. You were nothing to her but a mindless, clueless boy she had to deal with. And your father. Oh, your father! The poor man actually had to deal with you.

Had to spend time with you and everything. Your mother was lucky enough to get a break from you most of the time. It was your father who truly suffered. He had to deal with this stupid child who thought he was entitled to something. The disobedient brat that didn't even understand what the hell he was doing half the time. Your father had the burden of having you around, he was the one who struggled with you."

"My father loves me!" Jonah yelled again.

"But your mother didn't," The man threw back at him. Jonah didn't respond and Atticus could basically hear his heart break from where he was.

"But still. Even with your parents fighting constantly, and the way you acted, your life was still a shit ton better then Joseph's, wasn't it?"

The man let that hang in the air like a feather, letting it slowly and softly sink into each and ever one of them. The name was what stung them the most. They didn't know anyone by that name. Atticus's mind raced to find a source but came up blank.

"Remember that day Jonah?" the man said.

Atticus could hear Jonah start to cough, poorly hiding his sobs.

"How you and the winner over there just realized you followed the decoy of Luna Atoma and that Erasmus went after the real Luna? You two raced over to him and you arrived just as Erasmus had her down on the ground, ready to shoot and kill the target. To kill Vesper Five. The same woman who killed his own mother."

Jonah was full out sobbing now, his cries coming out hard, like his whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Atticus heard of the story and knew what followed next.

_It's not his fault. He did it for Erasmus. Any of us would have done the same. It's not his fault!_Atticus thought in his head, even though he knew it was useless.

"He was there, right on the edge. But then the Vesper spoke of her child. Her son that she claimed to be held hostage by the Vespers as well. And what did you do then, Jonah? What did you say as you and Hamilton stood there in that same room with the other two?"

"I...I..." He couldn't say anything else, his heart wrenching sobs wouldn't let him. He was grasping for air like a choking dog, and there was no way he could speak, especially of this.

"You told Erasmus that she was lying. That she was had no children. On record, that is."

The man spat at the rapper.

Atticus finally realized what this all meant, what the man was getting at. Atticus couldn't believe his ears.

"And then she caught Erasmus off guard, and she had him shot and dead before you could even think. You didn't have time to think. You only had time to act."

The room became suddenly darker, like the atmosphere just lost all the light and happiness and nothing was left except for dread and despair, guilt and grief, sadness and death.

"You picked up that gun and killed her. Killed her like her life didn't matter. Like she was nothing more then a toy. She was nothing but a demanding villain that just aimed to do nothing more but to destroy and to kill. To depart and separate true and pure connections. She was nothing more then a selfish, careless monster. She was you made over. And you couldn't stand the reflected sight of it. So you did what you did with everything else in your life that you didn't like, you got rid of it. You killed it. You killed _her."_

Jonah only cried harder, an answer for the man. Jonah's sobs were even shaking his voice, like his own guilt was trying to hurt him for his terrible deed.

"By killing her, you killed another poor soul. Luna wasn't lying. She really did have a son."

The man spoke the truth finally. Jonah cried even more.

"I-I didn't know!" he pleaded. He could barely get any more out, but no one recognized what he said after that.

"Joseph was only nine years old when he died. Not even double digits yet. He died it that rusty little room they left him in. They told him about his mother's death- her murder- and he cried so much that day. And he kept crying till his death. They didn't give him any water or food. He only died two weeks after his mother, due to starvation and heartache. But of course you already knew that, didn't you? Vesper One made sure of it."

Atticus couldn't comprehend all of the mans words completely at first. His head spun again with the information and he didn't believe it at first. Then it all made sense in his mind, then the shock settled in and stabbed him forcefully, all at once.

"I-I...," Jonah choked out, "I did it out of anger! She k-killed Erasmus! I had to do it! I had to! For p-protection for me and Hamilton! For Phoenix! For my family!"

"Phoenix!" the man screeched like a wet cat.

"Your cousin that you let get kidnapped in the first place. Poor, innocent Phoenix, who was the same age as Joseph? The same Phoenix that was soon reviled to be missing from the other hostages because of your deed and your family's failed mission?"

Jonah cried more, and Atticus wasn't sure that he could stand it anymore. He was so tired of the crying he had heard in that hellhole. All of the soul broken sobs that would forever haunt them once and forever, if they survived that damn torture.

"Poor Phoenix." The man sighed sadly. "He was thrown into the Cahill and Vesper war way too young. Just like Joseph."

The statement hung in the air, and Atticus couldn't help but fear the pain of the truthfulness of the fact. He wasn't sure if he could stand it. It was like a bullet to his heart. And then a bullet to his brain to realize that he was only two years older then them during the time.

"After the war, you went on with life. You kept performing your amazing music. You kept being adored by millions and millions of fans who didn't really know who you truly were. You kept on being the great Jonah Wizard. Not a single day went by that you actually stopped and thought about or even cared about your mother. About Phoenix. About Joseph."

"That's a lie!" the Janus boy cried out, his voice very weak. "I always cared! I always thought about them! How could I not?!"

"And then you decided to make things right between you and your mother," the man went on.

"You took matters into your own hands again and reached out to her for the first time since the clue hunt. You decided that it was time to make peace, and try again."

Jonah didn't respond.

"It took awhile, didn't it? Almost a year before she finally responded to the her needy little son who was crawling back to mommy. She began to talk to you again... well, she tolerated you, at least. Even more then she did when you were young, right?"

Jonah still didn't respond.

"Anyway, you and your mom began to at least speak to each other again. Forming a distant but somewhat strong relationship again. Soon, you both decided to meet again. The first meeting since the end of the clue hunt and she came to see you and your two broken legs in the hospital. That was the last time you ever saw her till that night."

Jonah sniffed again. He was soon crying again, Atticus knew it. He wasn't sure where the mans story was leading but he knew it wasn't good.

"It was that night in Paris, correct?" the man went on, his voice filled with fake joy and excitement as he continued, like he was reading a story to a bunch of toddlers.

"You were there for a concert for your Nation Wife Tour, and she was there for her work again. She always liked Paris anyway. You two decided to meet at the hotel she was staying at. You already had a key and everything. You even got her a small gift for the meeting. Some pricey perfume by her favorite designer. A nice gift a son would get for his mother, yes? However, after you travel to the hotel, got into the elevator and traveled up to the twelfth floor, you suddenly felt like stopping and turning back for some bizarre reason. But you went forward anyway, right?

Straight to mama. You knocked first... no answer. You knocked again... still no answer and so you got nervous. You finally use the room key and when you walked in, you find her there. And let's just say... she sure left you hanging, hmm?"

Atticus heard Jonah get up again but was soon stopped by the shocking ringing of a gunshot that seemed to shake the air in fear. Atticus waited to here the dropping sound of Jonah's dead body to hit the floor but it never came.

"Sit down." The man's voice was darker then before. He was basically growling. He heard Jonah softly obey him.

After about a minute of still silence, the asshole man spoke. "You found her hanging there. Her feet floating above the ground by a mere inch..."

Just then the man started laughing like he just told the worlds best joke and he couldn't help it. The laugh was a loud, dark, and booming snickering that Atticus couldn't get out of his mind no matter what. It was the kind that you hear in nightmares, the kind the truly evil villains have.

"I would take that as karma if I were you, Jonah."

The man finally calmed down. "You killed a little boy's mother and you find yours is dead. Odd, isn't it?" The man laughed more. The laugh started to fade, and, after the sound of an opening and closing door, finally went away.

Jonah soon started bawling. Straight out, uncontrollably wailing of pure emotions that no one could really and fully understand. Atticus took off his blindfold to find the young man on the floor, his face hidden away from the others. His whole body, that was now covered in bruises, raked in random small moments of shaking that looked like they hurt.

Atticus got to his feet and went over to the guy. He put his hand on his shoulder. Jonah looked up at him, like he was shocked to find him there. His dark brown eyes were enough to voice his question towards Atticus.

_Why are you here for me?_


	6. The Lover

Jonah Wizard was done with everything in the damn world. He was just done. _Fucking done._

He didn't care what people thought if him for once. As he laid there on the floor, in pain, crying like a baby over he's shitty life, he realized that and soon didn't care about that fact either. He was in pain that he couldn't describe fully, not that he would ever want to.

No words seemed to fit it rightfully as he kept seeing faces in his head: His mother screaming at his father, Vesper One personal email to him that showed pictures of Joseph's lifeless body, Phoenix's mother glaring at his meanly and disgusted when her son was kidnapped in his care at his concert...

He cried there for who know how long, using Atticus as a pillow. He was thankful for the guy and his comfort and support. Jonah really didn't know how to thank him properly, since he really didn't have a lot of that from his own family.

That and it just wasn't Atticus. Jonah thought that all of his family would hate him after all his sins spilled out, like blood. That they wouldn't want anything to do with a heartless murderer who killed an innocent boy's mother who was trying to save him. He just figured that if his own mother didn't want him, then why would they?

After who knows how long, Jonah finally gain enough energy to get up, standing to the best of his ability with the pain racking through his broken soul and body. He slowly and achingly limp over to his position between Hamilton and Sinead. He tried to seat down gently, having Atticus to help him, but his knee popped and more pain sprang upward in his leg. He couldn't stand for it and just dropped onto his arms, which only caused them to be pained too by the sudden force of the landing. He fall onto his chest with a groan.

Atticus tugged his left arm as Sinead too his right and they help him sit up properly, his defiantly bruise back leaning against the wall. Sinead scooted over beside him, going straight to work on seeing what was broken or sprained. His whole body hurt to where it was almost numbing his whole entire being as a person whole.

Soon the Ekat came to his face. She carefully lifted his head up from his chin, like she was balancing a rain drop on her fingertips. Jonah's complete vision was taken over by Sinead's face. He watched as her steely green eyes scanned his face with unbreakable concentration, as if Jonah was a very complicated mathematic problem or a challenging blueprint. Her auburn hair was beyond frizzy in skinny, kinky strains, but still able to elegantly lay across her left shoulder. Her slightly hollow rosy cheeks enlighten her gracefully high cheek bones that famed her ivory white face sweetly.

She caught him peering at her, and, for a good second, they only locked eyes and only looked in the eyes of the holder like they were reading each other's soul through them. Then she smiled with pity but also with supportive assurance, like she was kindly confirming him that all of this hellish suffering was all going to end soon and everything was going to be alright. Like no matter what direful or obnoxious happening takes place, that they will be okay, all of them.

No wonder Vesper One loved her.

Love. Just the tiniest of a thought of the simple word seem to crumple in a miserable and destructive way in that damn room. Like that monstrous dealer stood nothing to this terror chamber and the atrocious individual that claims the place as his domain.

Love... God, how do you even began to describe that? Jonah was never really a lover or a person who assimilated love. Yes, he was a famous artist will an endless stream of sold out concerts on wild, ecstatic tours all around the world with clangorous, undomesticated fans screaming that would praise, even extol, him as if he was a god. But he knew very well that none of them really knew him, so they couldn't truly love him. They were just in love with his work. They were just in love with his escape, just like himself.

Now, don't get him wrong. He's not whining that no one ever loved him or something dramatic like that. He knew very well that he was indeed loved by some people. He knew his father loved him and he knew that his friends and family members loved him, even thought his belief of that was ify just a moment ago, and he loved them all back.

It's just... Love, well, it's pretty fucking scary. Yet, enchanting and amazing... Okay, love is just flat out confusing, could he say that?

He never experienced the kind of love that involved him being completely head over heels for a certain someone where all of his entire being was just crazy about them and he just wanted to get all of himself to them. But he would like to be in that kind of love, yet he didn't.

From the endless amount of love songs and stories that he had heard and read from all of the other artist that he had encountered in his life, he has came to the conclusion that love was similar to a card game. Love's benefits and risks were the same as if he was gambling in a poker match. An individual came put in a little on his part-only a small amount of one's soul that contains his the elements that make them who they are and what really builds up what their truly worth-and they will only get a little in return, if not none. In other words, they were being smart and playing it safe.

Or the player can put in all of it-all of themselves-into it. Everything they could ever want, need, or have in a simple, yet incredibly large chance that could be ungodly annihilating or holy amazing. And the result can be different in extremely polar straits. They could gain pure charismatic and engaging affection. Something just so magnificent in every way possible that it just enlightens you into complete blissfulness. Pleasingly bewitching you as you become into a new whole with a certain other that solves and mixes with yourself, becoming apart of you. They now taking the place of being you muse, your life source, your hope, your everything...

Or they can become the wholly opposite. Where you lose yourself after your loss. Everything you put into that unstable, perilous risk now gone forever... All of your unbreakable faith, all of your unquestionable hope into that chosen other... Just vanished, away, gone. Only to leave you rupture and lost. To just throw you out into the world mislead and mistreated, entirely unable to do or think properly because the pain of the damn heartache-that deep wound located in the middle of your chest and pride and soul that is throbbing and bleeding like mad with no glimpse of stopping- just kept pounding on with the mocking sound of a heartbeat that you don't hear or even have anymore because that stupid special someone took it away and pulverized it in front of your own eyes that were starting to come to the brim in sadden tears. He image the pain was even more terrible and excruciating then what he felt at that moment.

And that's why Jonah was frighten by the risk of love, yet in longing of it. But he was mostly scared of it. Say he has philophobia but, for him, it's just the solely fact that he could end up shattered that way by that chance. And the possibility of still ending up that way, even if he got what he wanted, how it could easily slip into what he doesn't want...

He didn't know how people could do it, and so carelessly, like it was nothing but a simple hand of cards. How can they just do that? Do they not see what they hold?

That they carry their own worth as a living creature, as if they were being weight in precious jewels.

That they contain their infinite legacy, as in what would they leave in the world and it's effective importance.

That they have a grip on their will as a free human, as if their self created happiness is represented through their life.

That they hold their love and it's offering, as if it's for person to take in value or to destroy in distaste.

Jonah quickly push the matter out of his mind, along with the image of Sinead's face.

It was later that day, probably around night time, when Jonah finally found sleep, it being the first time since he had been held capture in that damn room. He guessed that he was so physically and emotionally drained that his lack of energy overpowered his fear. He saw Amy and Dan sleeping, along with Hamilton who was slightly snoring beside him, and he let himself do the same.

He woke up later on, not really sure of the time then. Dan and Amy were still passed out with Sinead who was resting her head on her knees and Ian was leaning against the china cabinet. He decided he might as well join the party and went back to sleep which wasn't very hard.

He soon woke up again to find everyone else awake. Some more droopy eyed then others but he assume that he was one of those who were.

They all were all silent like before for a long time till Atticus spoke up, his voice was so loud in the silence that Jonah wasn't used to it. He seemed to be screaming almost.

"We have to get out of here." He simply stated.

"But how?" Dan spoke after him.

"The more I think of it, the more I like the whole car-to-the-wall idea." Hamilton said. "I rather die by that then in here by that asshole. That would please him as much as me shoving my foot up his ass."

"Hamilton." Sinead glared over to him who merely shrugged.

"It seems to be our only option." Ian was starting up at the ceiling.

"I'm up for it if it gets us the hell out of here." Amy said, her voice low. "If it gets us away from him..."

"Who is he?" Sinead squeaked out her question. Jonah thought she was about to cry. "And how does he know all this shit about us? I-I never told anyone about...about D-D-D..." He voice trailed off. Jonah thought that she was debating over his name. Dave or Damien.

Jonah then had a moment of realization hit him like a train. He never told anyone about Joseph or about his mother. He never told his branch. Hell, he didn't even tell his own father about it.

"No one knows about the Notre Dome visiting while Reagan was away except for my family." Hamilton stated.

"No one knew about anything he spoke about for me, except me." Jonah confirmed as anxiety and fear rose inside him again.

That seemed to silent them all again. The three who been in the center shocked out of there mind. The four who hadn't gone were obliviously were scared out of there mind, probably figuring out what the man might speak about when there time comes in the near future.

"My god..." Amy breathed as if the news was like dying. Jonah figure it was worse to them.

No one else spoke after that. None of them really had the meaning nor the courage too. Jonah didn't know how long it was after that till the man came back.

He arrived with the gun and blindfolds like he always did. He took a long look at all of them before blinding them. Jonah was somewhat relieved to be honest... Knowing he would never go back in the center made him breath a little easier, but the fact that one of his family members will be in there took all the oxygen out of his lungs in fear and guilt.

For a long moment, nothing happen. No sound of movement whatsoever. Jonah thought for a terrible moment that that was it. They were all going to die. He was going to shoot them one by one and they all be done for. But just then, there were three hard foot steps and a ruff sound and then a hard thump that seemed to be in front of Jonah. The man just chosen his victim.

There was another long moment of stillness. No sound was heard. Then the cruel man chuckled like demon.

"Daniel Author Cahill." The man sneered. "The Lover."

Jonah was taken back from that. Personally, he thought Ian or maybe even Atticus to be the Lover when the man mention the title before. He didn't see Dan as a big emotional teddy bear.

"Oh Danny, Danny, Danny..." He started. "I heard you had a photographic memory, Lover Boy. Is that true?"

Dan didn't answer.

"I'll take that as a yes. But wait." He man's voice was a teasing concern. "If that's true, then how could you remember nothing about your parents?"

Jonah heard Dan's sharp intake of breath.

"Little Danny and his sister, seating outside, watching the bonfire that was once their home. Watching it burn away along with mommy and daddy, praying that they would get out in time... But they never did, did they?"

Dan didn't speak.

"They left this world before you even got a chance to remember anything about them. It just...It just saddens me." The man spoke like he was holding back a laugh. "It really does. It truly saddens me of how you have to relive on your sister to know anything about them, and even then it not very much to look back on, right?"

"Fuck you." Dan grunted at him.

The man went on with a care. "You should be more grateful for them next time. Maybe then they won't be taken away so easily, huh?"

Dan didn't say anything else.

"And that's where it all started. Your endless strain of constantly losing all the people close to you in every way possible." The man kept up his teasing tone. "And it escalated on and became more frequent later on in your life, right? First it was your parents in the fire. Then after seven years-seven years of a cramp apartment with a bitchy aunt and a stupid, stammering sister with only the weekend visit to live for in your damn shitty life- it was Grace, your beloved grandmother who actually gave a damn about you. The only person who didn't treat you like the lost little boy you really are, right? Because you hid it with all with your untamed emotions so well. Because, God forbid, that anyone sees the real Dan underneath all the goofy jokes and the sarcastic remarks, correct?"

Dan was silent, but his breath was heavy and loud, skipping a few times with caused him to choke on his own breath. Jonah could sense him shaking. He could tell that this was already too much for him, his breaking point about to be reached.

"And that's where it all came in like a fucking crazy ride. Once your parents and Grace was gone, you where thrown into the clue hunt. Where you were hunted down like an animal by almost everyone in this room, while you were desperately searching for the 39 clues. And the first victim of that was Irina, right? When she took her own life to save you from that fire. Then it was Lester..."

Jonah didn't know a Lester. He was lost that this point. Dan's breathing became heavier, causing him to choke more. He heard the sound of ripping the fabric of the carpet, like Dan was digging his finger nails into it.

"Lester was an innocent by stander, a grandchild of Grace's friend. A good person who was just wanted to help you... And he died trying to help you. He died, Danny. He died for you, someone he didn't even know. A pure, caring person died for a broken, destructive, careless, idiotic child that didn't even consider him and his live and how that was at stake." The man's voice became harsher to him. It reminded Jonah of knives digging into wooden, just the rough sound of it sinking farther into it. Jonah shivered.

"That makes five people, Danny. Five innocent souls that lost there lives because of you. And so many more that risk their for you and your sorry excuse of an existence. Like Alistair. Like Nellie. Like Fiske. Like your own damn sister!" The man almost screeched at him, like the words he said to him were nasty tasting on his tongue. Jonah knew if he wasn't blinded, he would be looking at Amy, who was probably near tears.

"All of them chancing everything in the world just for pathetic little boy." The man said in a vicious tone. "They did in the clue hunt. Even everyone here that was in the fucking gauntlet did it! They gave up there branches secrets, the branches clues! All for you and your stupid mission for the damn Madgricals!" The man started to raise his voice throughout the rant, but soon stopped and lower his voice back to before.

"And that's when you memorize all of the clues, thinking it was a good idea to do at the time, right? Thinking that it would be best if you took it upon yourself to do what no one else was trusted to do, right? And that backfired on you, didn't it?"

Dan didn't say anything. Just then, a gun fire went off, followed by three loud slamming sounds. Dan groaned in pain and it sounded like he fell to the floor.

"You're an ungodly idiot to think you could live with all 39 clues in your mind! Constantly there to tempt you!" The man started to scream at him, his rage freighting them all like never before. Hearing his voice was almost like looking at his eyes...

"But you did it! You did it for yourself! You were hungry for the power! The knowledge that would make you strong then the others! You didn't want peace! You wanted nothing more then that!"

The man stopped and waited for a second. Dan said nothing. That caused the sound of another three loud slaps to break out.

"ANSWER ME!" The man screamed, his voice hitting a brand new voice.

"You're wrong." Dan stated the strongest he could manage, but Jonah could still hear the slight fear and weakness in his voice.

For a long moment, the man only breathed angry. Then, another ruff sound take place, and then Jonah hear Dan gasping for air, but this time, he was literally fighting for it. Jonah soon realized what was happening, and got ready for a fight.

"But I'm not," The man lowered voice said, almost to where you couldn't hear him. "Now am I?"

Just then a sound of something hitting the floor hard came up. Dan was soon coughing and grasping. Another long quiet moment passed, Dan no longer coughing, and Jonah thought for a second that he was dead.

Till the man spoke again. "Then the Vesper War came and your strait continued. Your deadly strait." His voice was disgusted. "The Vespers took some very important people away into there hell, right? They took Fiske. They took Nellie... They even took _her_."

The last word hung in the air like the gun shot. Jonah heard nothing but the abnormally loud ring of the light and the slightly quicken breath from Dan and the almost silent sobs from Amy. Jonah had no idea of who 'her' was. He thought of all the females that where taken hostage along with his cousin, Phoenix. There were three overall, but the man only said one's name, Nellie. That left two-Reagan Holt and Natalie Kabra.

"Her..." Dan repeated the man, his voice low and hollow like he was speaking from inside of himself, not really in and apart of his body. There was a hint of longing and desperation in his tone, like he was taking his last breath.

A loud slap broke out into the still air again. Dan squeaked in pain. "Yes, Daniel!" The man hissed at him. "_Her_!"

Dan didn't say anything else. After a few second of silence, the sound of a sniffle was heard and Jonah knew the man finally cracked him.

"Her." The man echoed himself. "You let her get kidnapped. It's your fault that she dragged back to hell in the first place. It's your fault she's dead."

That statement was enough. They all knew then who he was talking about.

"Tell us about her, Danny." The man ordered. "Tell us about how, after the clue hunt, you just started to think about her and her well being after the hunt. You wanted to make sure she was okay, with her mother's trail and her injured foot. You were concerned and that was the first time you were ever concerned for her." The man paused for a short moment, waiting for Dan's reaction who was holding back his cries the best he could. Once he got none, he went on. "You emailed her and she emailed back. And that's when it all began. You don't know why you continued the conversation, you just did because it felt right. You open up to her and discovered that she was just like you. Crestfallen and alone. Two trouble souls finally finding some comfort within each other and, as time went on, eventually, fall in love."

The ending of that sentence seemed to change the atmosphere of the room. Jonah never heard silence as loud as it was then. Just so moveless and dead... Jonah wasn't even sure that anyone in that room, at that moment, was breathing. He sure wasn't.

He had never expected to two to be lovers, more like the total opposite. They never got along, always constantly fighting or not speaking at all, if it was really bad. He wasn't sure if he really could believe any of that from the man's words. He rather hear it from Dan.

"Except you didn't want that." The man finally spoke up, his voice grim. "You didn't attend or even thought of doing such a stupid, treacherous thing. You didn't want anything that came from such a thing-all of the affections, the passionate connection-that could be broken so much so easily. But you did. You fell for her. And, goddamn it, you fell pretty fucking hard."

"It was hard not to." Dan finally spoke. His statement had an effect on that room that Jonah still couldn't describe and he really didn't want to. It was just the sound of his voice...His heart broken voice. Jonah will never forget that sound and how it ripped his own heart apart. He wished to never hear it again.

The man huffed, like he begged to differ that the boy's statement. Jonah could feel the hatred and anger radiant off the Lucian across the room body.

"You fell in love with her, and you soon realized that that was the worst thing you could have ever done. You couldn't be in love with her, you just couldn't. Your branch would never approve. Your family would never accepted her. You two just couldn't be. But you couldn't leave her alone, you couldn't forget her. She meant too much to you. She was one of the last few good things you had left in life. Everyone else in your life went away or died, but she was there and she said that she was there to stay, no matter what. You loved her even more then."

Dan started to slightly sob then. He whimpered like a baby in pain, and that was enough for Jonah to tell it was all true.

"In between those three years of the clue hunt and the Vesper war, you two became secret lovers. No one know or even suspected about your secret relationship, and you worked very hard to keep that. Fake fighting constantly. Sometimes, not even speaking to each other just to make sure. But that was just the show, the other players point if views. Behind the senses, just between you and her when you two were all alone and safe away... Oh you loved her. You saw her, the true her. And you loved what you saw, you loved it more and more with each day that went by between you two."

"I did." Dan confirmed. His voice still heart wrenching sad, soul shattering hollow.

"As those three years moved onward, you two did more and more together and kept them as your little secrets. How you would always call or text her late at night and stay up for hours, even days, just to kept talking to her. And how sometimes, when she was feeling down, you would go out and buy some fancy pricey chocolate and send it too her, just so you could make her smile. Or how she sometimes write you little cute love letters and send them to you, signing them 'Mrs. Daniel Cahill'. Or how sometimes she would randomly kissed you, after she staring at you for a long time and you always kissed her back. Or how she would always say 'I love you', among others things like 'You're the best' and 'I can't wait to be with you forever.' Oh yes. Yes, you loved her, madly, wildly loved her. But you didn't want to be, and you refused to admit it to yourself. And that is what broke her heart in the end, along with herself."

Dan was crying like a baby now. His heartrending sobs fully the room. He could speak if he wanted to.

"You didn't want to love her, and you were angry at yourself for letting yourself fall for her. Angry at her for making you do so. You regretted ever letting her in, because you knew it could never be the way you wanted it. All happy and fantastic, the perfect fairytale ending. That you could never really have her for yourself, that she would always be hidden away from everyone. That you two would be each other's dirty little secret and nothing more. You knew she was going to leave, just like everyone else that you ever loved, and she wasn't coming back. You knew that she lied to you went she promise she would stay, and, just like how you fall in love with her, you fell for her lie. You loved her but she di-"

"SHUT UP!" Dan screamed a blood curdling scream at the man. It broke the tensity if the room, like a ball to glass. The result was similar to the leftover shards. "SHUT THE HELL UP! SHE _LOVED_ ME! SHE ALWAY LOVED ME! AND I LOVED HER! I-I.." His voice cracked after that, the sobs coming back for a second time. The younger boy try to fight them back the best he could but he failed and he was crushed again.

The man was silent for a moment, a long moment, before he started to chuckle. A pitiful snicker really, like Dan was a silly little boy who didn't know what he was doing.

"Sure." He said. "Anyway, you loved her. Truly, undeniably loved her. And that's what caused it all to fall apart. One day, you got angry about it. You flashed out at her about the matter, saying you didn't want to, that it would be better off for you if she just went away and left. You two were just barely teenagers, what did you two know about love? That you rather be dead then to ever love her. You broke her heart, literally breaking her into millions of pieces. She didn't talk back to you. She just hung up and ignored all your calls after that, your sorry tempts to get her back once you realize what you just did. You were trying to get your love back, but you never did. And why is that Danny?"

Dan took a few grasps of breath before he responded. "T-t-that was the s-s-same day t-the V-v-vespers kidnapped-ed h-h-her." He barely got it out.

Jonah didn't know how to respond. He was shocked, but also sadden by it. He looked over the facts about her kidnapping and saw the connection of it all... He knew Dan didn't mean it, and he knew that she defiantly didn't deserve it. No one deserve to die the way she did.

"You were the cause for her to go to Hardord that day. You're the reason why she went there. Why she wanted to drain her pain away with some shopping. You're the reason why she got kidnapped that day. You're the one who let the Vespers get to her. It's you're fault that she was torture in that hellhole with the hostages. It's you're fault that she died. That she died trying to save her family. That she died to save you. Just like all the other people that you put in danger, she ended up dying for you."

No. Jonah thought to himself. That's wrong. She died because she tried to save everyone from the Vespers. She died trying to be a hero. She died for the good guys, not because Dan pushed her away. It's not his fault.

Dan was nothing but loud sobs and yells of heart ache. That was the reason why Jonah didn't want to fall in love. The pain was too much to handle for anyone on this earth. Death looked like paradise compared to Dan's condition at that moment.

"It's all your fault." The man spoke again, his voice meaner then. "For all of that. Every bit if it."

Dan cried more. The man apparently didn't like that.

"I don't know what's more utterly sickening. You as a human being, one with no consideration or care for other who give a damn about you, or who you fell in love with." The state of the room changed with more heated rage filling the air.

"That...that demon you fall for. That killing snake." The man hissed down on Dan, like he was speaking of his disgusting sin like it was just evil to think of it. "She was a lying, manipulative bitch. A little brat with no emotions to speak for. And the idea of her loving anything-much less you-is nothing but a savagely despicable dream that only an idiot like you would have."

Dan was no longer crying miserably, but breathing heavily with rage, like he was about to turn into the Incredible Hulk. Jonah could even hear him shake with anger and resentment.

"You don't know her." He snarled at the man with his voice now murderous. "You don't know shit!"

"Please," The man spat. "She was nothing more then a shitty replica of her parents."

That's when hell broken loose.

Jonah heard a muffle sound, like something or someone was suddenly left up from the floor in a fast paste. He didn't know if the man was choking Dan again or not and soon tried to get back into an attack position, but before he could even think for a microsecond, a powerful and strong force winded by him and banged against the wall with some a hit, The rapper thought he had been him by the blast.

Jonah quickly took off his blindfold to find the man held up to the wall, tan skinned hands around his neck. But the chocker wasn't Dan.

Ian glared at the man with such abomination that his amber eyes looked blood red.

For a horrifying second, they were worse then the man's eyes.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" He screamed, his voice so dangerously tormenting to heard that Jonah wasn't sure who to be more afraid of. The man or Ian. "I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD, _I'LL KILL YOU!"_

The man struggled for breath, his face holding a slight blue tint untill he finally got a good hold on Ian and pushed him back. The Lucian kept his hold on the man's neck. The two fought down to the floor where the man tried to hit Ian and Ian tried to dodge them. Soon the man brought out his gun and it shot three time straight in there wrestling match on the floor.

The man grunted and held back yells of frustrations, like Ian was an annoying toddler that wouldn't go away so he had to deal with him and his punishment. Ian, on the other hand, was a screaming mess. Shout out threats, and Jonah wouldn't doubt him going through on any of them.

Soon the man pushed Ian down to the ground, the Lucian's hands now gone from the man's neck. The Lucian struggled under the man's force. The man brought the gun to Ian's head, his hand shaking crazily but his finger stead in the trigger.

Jonah was frozen in fear, unable to move by any means. But before the man could pull the trigger, there was a another high pitch scream and Amy came out of no where and tackled the man, hitting him so hard that he skidded off on top of Ian.

Amy and the man were standing, fighting for the gun. Amy was screaming at him. "THAT'S WAS MY BROTHER, YOU ASSHOLE!"

Soon, the girl shoved him but the man shoved her back, trying to use his weight to push her down so he could get on top of her and overpower her. Before she hit the ground Hamilton got up and attacked the man at full force, like a football player hitting his component. The Tomas and the man where at a brawl but Hamilton soon took over the man and shoved him foreword very quickly. He gave the man an extra push up, breaking off there physical connect, and then send a hard kick at the man's chest.

The man went flying back like a rocket and he landed into the china cabinet, his back causing a crash into the glass case, shattering it like nothing. Shards went everywhere, shooting out like a firework and the man fall back to his knees and than onto his hands.

The room was still for a solid moment as the man was on his knees, gun in hand. But, faster then lighting, he was up again. He dashed to the door for his escape, and soon the three Cahills that where already up ran after them. He shot out a bullet at them that stopped them dead in there tracks. Before they realized that no one was shot, it was too late. The door was locked and the man was gone.


	7. The Brother

Sinead Starling wasn't sure if they would ever get out. She was almost sure they would die in that damn room with the walls seeming to be closing in with every moment and the chance of escaping shrinking more and more each day. That the percent chance of them dying in that room was almost one hundred.

Oh well, she always deserved to die anyway, and she always knew that.

She watched as Dan sobbed uncontrollably in the center, right in front of them all. He seemed oblivious to everything that just happen with the man and the fighting back of Amy, Ham, and Ian. Like none of that happened. No, the only thing that did happened was that his Natalie was taken away. That the one he loved and cared about was gone. All he ever knew was his Natalie, and she was gone. She had been for a while now, but that didn't matter. The wound was still fresh and bleeding.

Her's defiantly was...

Amy crawled over to her crying brother, like a mother bear to her hurt baby cub. She had trouble lifting him up but she managed to do so, resting his body onto her's. She was cradling him like a baby as he dug his head into her shoulder and wept miserably. She held him, held him very tight, and whispered in his ear that it was alright, that it was all okay. That he did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all.

He did that with her too whenever she cried...

Dan only sobbed more. He said he was sorry, screaming it almost but the loud volume of his voice was being muffled out by the fabric of his sister's shirt. He was squeezing her arm with his free hand, clinching it tightly, like it was his life source, the very thing that kept him going. Like it was Natalie's arm. Like it was Natalie herself, and Dan was rushing back to her, like he did all those times before, back when she was still there to run to.

Like when he was still there to run to...

Dan was still shaking madly, like he just couldn't stop himself from doing so. He was still screaming, now screaming for Natalie, like it would bring her back to him. He was still clinching, almost gasping out for Amy's arm, like it really was Natalie herself and he needed her touch again, like that would make everything alright again.

That was all he needed. Dan just needed his Natalie.

Sinead tried that all herself. It didn't bring him back either...

Sinead knew exactly what Dan was going through. She was still going through it too, herself. And, she could tell him then and now, it wasn't going away. It never will.

She watched as the young man lifted up his head and looked up to his sister. Amy, who was also crying, looked back at him and saw, like Sinead herself, as his face dropped at that the sight of her face. Simply because because her face wasn't Natalie's.

Sinead watched as Dan's head fell again against his sister's chest, struggling to retain his breath that kept getting away from him. He wasn't crying anymore but she knew he would be soon, that he would be for the rest of his life.

She certainly was, all over him...

No.

No.

No!

She wasn't going to go there. She wasn't going to think about him again. Not again. She couldn't. She just couldn't. She couldn't think of that now or she would be tying as well, along with Dan. Everything he thought about Natalie, she would think of...

She constantly thought of him. All the time, he was on her mind. Even when he was alive, along with that other part of her soul that was destroyed when he died, she thought of him every second of every minute of every hour of every day. He was always there, in her mind.

He used to be there, all the time, in person, too.

Her mind still thought of him. He just popped into her thoughts every other moment of her life. His face would flash before her eyes, like he was there in front of her, right before her own eyes. His voice would sounded in her ears every now and then, like he was still whispering sweet things and orders to her in his low, deep, sexy tone. His scent of leather and pricey cologne still filled her nose often, making her feel like he was near her when he wasn't. And the worse of all is that she could still taste him on her lips. His heatedly sweet, unbelievably divining taste that made her weak in the knees and, practically, melt wholeheartedly as a human being. That amazing taste that kept her going on with her life back then, like she spared no meaning to anything in the world if that taste of those lips from that man where gone from it.

She could still felt his lips on her, the warmth overpowering and the taste rushing back to her, but it wasn't as full and as satisfying as the real thing.

But they were the closet thing she had to him now. Since he's forever gone now...

And he wouldn't be, if she just fucking saved him. Her love would still be alive if she just fucking stopped listening to orders from him and did what was right for once. She should have disobeyed him when he ordered her to go back to the Cahills and save herself. She should have stayed. Stayed with him, god damn it! The should have stayed with him, so they could be together! Dead or not! They would have been together!

They would have been together if... If she wasn't such a loser, a coward. If she just... Just done what was right and stayed with him...

They would be happy. She be with him. She wouldn't be in the pain she was in now without him.

And that's what hurts the most. That they were so close and that they loved each other so much, and then being cut off like nothing. Someone being your absolute everything... And then, once there gone, you left with nothing. But that one someone was your everything.

She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around, hugging herself as she tucked her head down onto her knees and shut her eyes harshly. She counted to ten-breathing in-and then counted ten again-for breath out. She hoped it would stop her shaking at least a bit but the exercise failed. Her spine felt like it was about to rip out from her body and skin and hit the wall and shatter with a spring like reaction. Her legs were shaking so much she couldn't control them, even if she took her hands and try held them still with all her strength. She would even dig her nail into her skin, traveling farther and farther until the went numb or even bleed.

None of this helped her. It never really did before so it's a mystery why she kept doing it. Maybe it was just her natural reaction, her forever lasting side effects, to her deadly douse with him.

Him.

Him; the mix between the most caring and the most hate driven. A combination of the purest and the most sinful. The collaboration of the best human she ever encounter in her life and the worst villain she ever seen ever. And she fell for both of sides-both of the two sides of him.

She first knew the villain, the crook. She saw that side first and it scared her out of her mind. He was the coldest thing she ever felt, like icicles really flew in his veins instead of blood. Maybe thats why he was so pale, the ice inside him making him as white as snow, if not whiter. And maybe it was his pale skin that made his smile so evil looking, that the white of his skin made his thin lips actually look like a thin red ribbon of blood, so whenever he smiled he appeared to be a wild, mad man with a taste for the dark red fluid. And maybe it was his smile to make his eyes look so much like an animal, like a snake or a wolf with there sight set straight onto it's prey. And maybe it was his smile that reflected his soul-just him. Him and his dreadful, inhumane soul-to make him so ungodly scary, unbelievably ghastly, just flat out fucking terrifying.

Then, after awhile, she saw the other side of him that made his character absolutely polar of what she first saw and feared. It was when she had settled down in the Cahill Mansion and was started to gain information about them and their own personal training against the Vespers. She went onto her computer in the dead of night and was about to email him till she looked out her window and found him outside, starting up at her like he had been waiting for her for a long period of time. He waved her to come down to him and she did. She sneaked quietly through the house and somehow manage to get through the front door with the alarms going off. She came out and met him, where he requested her to walk with him around the grounds. Sinead kept her hand close to her very small gun attached to her hip as they, together, walked around the circumference of the house twice before he finally spoke to her. He asked for her option of his planned action to kidnap one of her brothers along with the other seven they have considered to take. You could guess her reaction.

She yelled at him, even tried to throw a few punches at him, and called him the asshole he was. He blocked her hits and finally took her hands into his. The action alone stopped her in her tracks. She glared at him meanly and he glared at her straight back. Then he yelled at her for being an idiot, for disobeying his orders... For not seeing that he was trying to protect her.

Sinead was catch off guard with that. She didn't see it that way. And that's when he did the unthinkable.

He hugged her.

He fucking hugged her.

For a moment she couldn't recall the last time someone had any loving physical connect with her besides her brothers.

She melted into him. His arms around her waist and hers crawling at his shoulders. She was trying her best to cry but the tears came anyway. But they weren't hers. That's was when everything change for them, that moment Sinead got a good lol and taste of the man she once hated, and later on grew to love.

That was one out of the two times she saw him like that. The last time she ever saw him was the second. He just told her to get away and save herself, that he was going down with his creation, rather it worked or not. He promised her again that if it did work he would come back to her, so she could be with him and they could be happy together, and he would fix her brothers. He would solve all the problems in her life if he made through this. And she believed him and, deep down, wanted him to win.

That's when she realized she was truly in love with him. Not just the bad or good side. But both sides. She loved him both ways, as a whole. Because that love, you love everything about that someone, not just certain stuff. She loved all of him, good and bad. But that left her with even more problems then she had before, with her new title of "Traitor", and all. And the huge heartache over the matter didn't help anything.

And the saddest part of all, she didn't know rather to call him Dave or Damien.

The only thing that got her through it all was her brothers. The lights of her life. They, instead of cutting her off completely, took her in. They said it was all okay and that they were triples, that they had an unbreakable bond, and nothing in the whole world could ever change that. They stilled loved her when no one else did, and that was all she ever wanted. Someone to loved her no matter what.

They welcome her back to their home in Maryland with open arms and support as she came crawling back to them. They didn't give her hell for what she had done or what she have said. They still loved her and still declared her their beloved sister. They understood that she did it for them. That she loved them and that's why she betrayed the Cahills. She done it all for them and they loved her still for it. Sinead remembers crying once they told her that and how that came to her side and hugged her and held her as she cried even more and throughout that whole day. Ever since then, they lived in Maryland with each other and Sinead has never been happier. She loved her brothers. And they loved her. And that's all she even needed or wanted in this world.

Sinead looked back up to find Dan still clinging to Amy. She guessed she wasn't the only one.

Sinead looked around the room more. That left Ian, Atticus, and Amy. Amy most likely will go next since she was so close to Dan. Ian and Atticus would be the last two. What they done through was something Sinead wasn't sure of through. Due to what they have seen from the man's statics, Amy was defiantly going to be blamed for the deaths of all the Cahills in the clue hunt and the Vesper war and Ian was probably going to be blamed for his failure for saving his sister and for being the son of two ruthless beings he used to admired. Atticus was a mystery all of his own through. Sinead couldn't think of anything that he had done wrong, or as wrong as all the others did.

She watched as the young boy started down at the glass that was shattered around him. She followed his glance as it went up wards towards the group in the middle. Amy was still holding Dan as Hamilton and Ian stood. Hamilton would usually be the one who scared her the most, literally frightening her with they way he was glaring at the door, but Ian was worst. The Lucian was staring at the now broken china cabinet with glass broken doors and ruined marble plates and cups. There was a very small stream of blood from the man's body and Ian was watching it with unbreakable strain as it slowly dripped down, running smoothly down the glass. She could have sworn that he licked his lips before slightly flinching and going back to his spot, now farther away from the cabinet.

Amy took Dan back out of the center and Hamilton slowly came back beside her, his eyes never leaving the door. Sinead wanted to go back and hide again but Jonah spoke up before she could.

"I'm sorry, guys." His voice was sad and dead.

"What are you sorry for?" Ian asked.

"I should have told you guys. That way, none of us would be here."

Sinead realized then what he meant by his statement. She felt a ripple of shock wave through her body. If she just told them everything, she wouldn't be here, struggling and suffering. None of them would. She watched as everyone else realized this too.

"Are you saying that if we just ambit this to each other, we would get out of here?" Hamilton asked.

"I guess so. That's why we're here in the first place right?" Jonah said.

Everyone got what he meant then. He suggested that the remaining three spill out there secrets then and there instead of waiting for the man to do so. Time passed and none of them spoke.

It was harder to face them then be blind and under the man's control.

Soon Sinead, once she realized that no one was going to confess, put her head back down and went to sleep without meaning to. She woke up a few hours later, or so she guessed, to find everyone else awake but some were about to take a nap themselves. She wanted to do the same but the sound of loud and heavy footsteps stopped her, along with her heart beat.

Soon, the man's shadow came upon the door. Sinead hugged her knees tighter to her chest. She wasn't sure if she had enough courage to look back to the others who were probably starting at the door with total fear like her.

It was times like these when she wished he was still alive. He was so fearless and had everything under control. He could easily take this bastard down in a second, and he would be her savior again, like he always was before whenever he saved her. But that couldn't happen. Never again.

The man stayed there for what felt like forever. He didn't move or anything. Sinead wasn't even sure if he breathed. All she knew is that he was looking through the fabric of the curtains and was gawking at them with evil and cruel plots and theories in his head, his little personal, self made entertainment to kill them all from the inside, using their emotions and trouble past as the gun to kill them.

Sinead wasn't sure how long the man stood there but she knew if he stroud there any longer one of them, if not herself, were going to snap and attack him. She wasn't sure what would happen after that.

The man, still starting, turned his body to the left and walked away from the door, his frame slowly going away and soon gone from their sight. Sinead let out a sign of relief that almost sounded like a frighten scream. She put her head in her hands and felt as she began to shake yet again, more violently this time.

"Goddamn Asshole!" Dan screamed as he threw his shoe at the door. "He gets way to big of a kick out of this shit!"

"He does." Hamilton agreed with his little buddy.

"What time is it?" Atticus asked.

"I don't know. I think it's the afternoon." Dan answered.

"Let's get out of here tonight." Atticus demanded. No one spoke for awhile after that.

"We can't." Amy spoke up. "It's to o risky."

"What other choose do we have?" He challenged.

"I don't know, but I rather come up with a plan that gets us all out safely." Ian stated. Sinead, sadly, agreed with the Lucian. "We still have some time-"

"Do you want to get out of here before or after he tortures you?!" Atticus suddenly snapped at him. They all were shocked but his tone and his anger. Ian stared at him with a raised brow. Atticus soon lost his glare and try to mutter an apology to him but the Englishman just nodded as his forgiveness and the young boy soon went back to starting at the ground, in shame and embarrassment. Dan put his arm over him and side hugged him. They all knew the boy was right about the escape.

Soon, Sinead went back to napping as Hamilton decided to lay down flatly on the floor. He was out within seconds. She woke up soon afterwards as the sound of a door closing ranged out to her ears. She snapped right up out of her position to find the man in the room. He held the blindfolds in one hand and the gun in the other. He stood there in his jeans and t-shirt, and Sinead was scared out of her mind at the sight of him.

She didn't mean too but she glanced back at the other three who hadn't gone. It was soon to be two.

Amy held onto Dan's hand like her life source. She was shaking worse out of them all. Her beautiful jade green eyes were so filled with fear, Sinead, for once was not jealous of the color, but instead felt pity for the girl who was about to go into the center that was like rotting right in the middle of hell itself. Atticus was scared out of his mind as he dug his fingers into the carpet, like they would be his anchor and keep him away from the man. Ian looked more angry then scared as he viciously glared at the man with those amber eyes that were like a snake's. They were almost as red as blood, and Sinead felt like she was dying as she started at them.

The man soon came over and blindfolded her, the knot at the back of her head extremely tight, to where it hurt her head. She knew it wouldn't never measure to Ned's head aches, but still.

She counted to twenty like she normally did when the man was done with her and went on to do all the others. He was normally done by then, and then she would count the seconds it took for him to get the next victim. It was different every time.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Thump.

That was her sign to end the counting. It meant he just selected his new victim. She used to do the same little habit whenever she was with him.

"Atticus Rosenbloom." The man snarled. "The Brother."

Sinead felt sorry for him. He must have just known he was going next, that's why he wanted to escape so badly.

"Atticus." The man started. "You're so smart. So, so smart. An I.Q. of 210 smart, right. So many would want to be as smart as you, would kill to be as smart as you."

Atticus remain slight. Sinead realized with a shock that it was the first time the man admire any of them in such a nice way. Too bad his tone was fake. Just like his way most of the time.

"Some considered that a blessing. But, not you, right?" The man coaxed him. "You were ungodly bright for your age. You were reading Latin by the second grade and studying stoichemistry but the fourth. That didn't really make it easy to find and make friends for you, now did it? When you were reading War and Peace, all the other kids were outside, during recess, and playing with there friends like normal kids. They were laughing as smiling as you sat alone in the classroom and read. It was very lonely, wasn't it?"

Atticus still didn't answer.

"I mean the only friend you had was your parents really. But you're father was always away on business and your mother...well she was soon gone forever, wasn't she?"

Atticus was silent again.

"Don't your remember that day? When she finally passed away, after mumbling your destiny to you and then finally slipping away like air. She held your hand the whole time, and gave it one final squeeze before she was gone. I'm sure you remember that day very well, don't you. It was the morning of New Year's Eve and you didn't want to start the year without your mother. You didn't want to be without your mom any year, in any life, right?"

Atticus sniffed in response.

"That only left you, your dad, and your brother. But that wasn't so bad right? Your brother was still there for you. He went through it all for you. He was there and that's something you are truly grateful for. A debt you could never repay, right?"

Sinead noticed the double meaning in the last question, like it stood for another definition that only Atticus knew of. Sinead sure didn't know what it meant.

"Jake was awesome, wasn't he?" The man went on. "He wasn't your full brother, only half, but you wished he was full. He was six years older, smart in his own way, and cool in every way. He was always able to make you laugh and happy whenever you were down but could also be serious and supportive when you needed him too. He was the best brother in the whole world in your eyes."

"And he still is." Atticus snapped at him. The man only huffed before pausing for a moment like he was thinking in what to say. He didn't speak till ten seconds later.

"You two were so close. Best friends. Nothing wrong in the world with each other... That is till it came to grades. You always made it better then him, beyond better. And with all the praise and proudness from your father...well Jake wasn't too friendly then, was he?"

Atticus didn't respond, but Sinead could relate though. Her own parents made civil rivalry out of everything, especially grades and I.Q. scores. All three off the triples were ungodly smart and they all knew it but it was the praise, the pat in the back and bragging rights from the parents that made it a huge thing in the household. Constant fights whenever the report cards came out and hurt feelings on that rare low scored test. It was a game card their parents played most of the time and it cause tons of trouble for the siblings that they were able to pass by them later on in the years but still made them a little tense and departed from each other.

"He became distant and hesitance towards you. He didn't like you so much whenever your father mention about you being a child genius in front of every one of his friends and not a single word said about him."

"That's not true!" Atticus snapped again.

"Sure it isn't." The man giggled like it was a funny joke. "Anyway, as the years grew, you and Jake became closer and closer. Like real, full blood brother. But so did the resentment and the jealousy that he carried around with him. Even through out the Vesper War, he hated it when ever you figure out something and he was completely clueless on the matter. And you knew that, didn't you? He knew, even back then at that young age, that you were smarter then him and everyone else around you. You didn't mean to be, you just were. But that didn't stop you from flaunting it either. You always held your head up higher and used bigger words to describes something then you needed to. You liked showing your brightness off, like a pair of new shoes or a new car. He just had so much arrogance inside of you that you just had to let it out and show it. You just had to, not taking anyone else and there option or feeling in a count. You didn't care, they should be smarter, now shouldn't they?"

Atticus try to get something out but couldn't. He wasn't crying but Sinead knew he was close. It wasn't the information that hurt it scared him, it was what was coming next that scared him so much. He really didn't want be that damn middle, he really didn't want his deep dark secret out there.

"But of course, you weren't as smart as you thought you were, didn't you? I mean, you finally figured out who poison your mother at the end of the war. If you really were as smart as you thought you were, you would have already known that right?" The man seemed to laugh at him in a very mean way, like he was really an idiotic kid. It was confidence shattering.

His laugh was like he's. So much like he's.

Atticus sniffed again, like he was about to cry over nothing but the fact that he hurt his only friend in the world besides Dan. That he ruin his brother over the fact that he just couldn't get over himself.

"But it was after the War were everything really went down hill for him didn't it?" The man sneered. "After the war, he tried to returned back to his normal life but something inside of him change, didn't it? He seemed to be more distance as a whole person, not really connecting with much of anything anymore, right? He wasn't the same old Jake. He was colder, meaner. Only you, at times, could bring the old Jake back, just like you did with Dan... Well you and her for Daniel, that is." _This man just has a sick sense of humor, _Sinead guessed.

"Anyway, Jake changed and it defiantly wasn't for the better. He got into a lot more fights with your father and they were small. No, not at all. He dropped out of school, saying he didn't need it, he was smart enough. He broke up with the golden girl of the Cahills here and...well he just wasn't himself, now was he?"

Sinead knew he meant Amy as the 'golden girl'. It wasn't like it was a bad breakup. It was mean or messy or bad in anyway. They both just realize they were growing into two different people and they weren't themselves anymore. They were as close as they were before and they decided that they would be happier if they just became friends. Of course that was before Jake fucked up everything, but still, Amy and Jake ending their relationship was as a dramatic thing as the man lead it to be.

"He then started to hang out with the wrong kind of people, now did he?" The man continued on. "The mean, ruthless kind that want to get a lot of money the easy and fast way. And Jake soon became the leader of them, with his connections and his title in the Cahill family, now didn't he?"

"He didn't mean to do all that stuff!" Atticus defended him. "He was just a little loss and didn't know what he was getting himself into! He didn't mean it!"

"Bullshit!" The man spat. "He knew extremely what he was doing! He said so himself! He said he was going show you and your damn father up! He was going to show that he was the smart one, the best one! He was going to prove it once and for all!"

Atticus was sniffing more now, pretty much crying. He couldn't respond.

"He told you to go fuck yourself, along with your father! He said he was better off without you two! He said he hated you two! And he meant it!"

"No he didn't!" Atticus fought back. "He didn't mean it!"

"But he did!" The man yelled, take ten seconds afterwards to get his breath back. "And you made him mean it. You put yourself and your own arrogance and pride over your own brother's care and self being. You made him what he is now." The man snarled at him with disgusted pouring out of his voice, almost like it was oozing out of the spaces between his teeth. Atticus cried more, finally facing the truth. Too bad it was all wrong. All fake

"He used his high Madgrical status to break in and steal Cahill artifacts. And not just Madgricals objects and secrets. He got a nice big chuck of priceless information and artifacts from all the branches. And he got away with it all very well at first. No one suspecting or even knowing about him and his work for about a year or so, till the Ekats reported about a missing document that was very important. That's soon relived his dirty work, but not himself. They all knew someone was stealing the branches secrets, they just didn't know who... But you did."

The room was completely still for five full minutes. Everyone was shocked out of the mind, to where none of them could speak. They all thought the same thing. _What?_

"They searched and searched and searched. It took the a year-a whole year-to find out it was him. A whole year earlier that he was stealing and selling branch secrets and artifacts. Two years so far of chaos ringing through the Cahill family. Two years that could have been completely gone and vanished in a matter of seconds if only you-the incredibly smart, the extremely bright child genius-just spoke up and told them all the answers, like you always did. Because you were just that smart, right?"

Sinead sat there in utter confusion and shock, with a dash of anger. Jake had been stealing very important things from the branches for years and years. Most of the time of his stealing spree, they didn't even know it was him. They had no idea. Hell, they didn't he expected him, since he remain inactive after the Vesper War and his break up with Amy. He just vanished with out a trace, and no one ever heard about him again. That is, until they discovered him and his new lifestyle of robberies and theft. She recalled all the times she talked to Amy over the phone about her constantly on the chase with the thief. It being a forever lasting game of cat and mouse. She was always so tired sounding and stressed out by it. It just took all the energy out of her and Dan like a full out work out. It was about the same for all the other Cahills in the room who helped in the search. When they all found out it was him in the end...

And Atticus knew all about it. All this time. All of it. And he didn't say a _damn_ thing about it.

"You knew it was him all along. Hell, he bragged about his lasted robbery to you constantly, like it was something to take pride in. He even told you pacifically what he took and why. Most of the time it was about of the money he could get for it, right? And sometimes, it was just a keep sake, a little prize he picked up for himself. Over those four long years of his theft crimes and the Cahills, the family who excepted you and even became friends with your careless arrogant ass, chasing after him like headless chickens. You could have helped them, but you didn't. Instead you offered help to your brother and his little gang."

"Atticus." Dan squeaked out. "No...what?"

"I'm so sorry Dan." Atticus cried. "I just wanted to keep my brother. I-I thought if I just got close to him again, a-and if I just talked to him some, I could help him turn back to normal. That I could make him confess and return all the stuff. I-I-I.." He cried more for twelve seconds. "I just wanted my brother back."

Sinead's hatred and anger towards the boy slowly and eventfully faded away then and was replaced with great empathy then. She knew how it felt to be in a desperate need for a cure, for a change for your sibling, your brother. That unchanging need to save them, to fix them into the better state that they once were in before all gel broke loose and destroyed them. She knew the boy's pain and understood why he did it.

"You sick asshole." The man sneered at him. "You choose your brother, who didn't even care about you anymore, over the people who actually did. That wasn't such a smart move there, huh?"

Atticus only cried more. Sinead understands why he didn't want to be in the center now.

"You offered your money to him. A place to stay. Even your own identity to get whatever he needed. You were desperate to help your brother again, just so you could have your only friend back, right?" The man seemed to shake his head at the boy for six seconds. "Once he was finally caught in Washington D.C. with the Hope Diamond in his position, you were so sadden. You were rooting for the villain, the crook in that match, weren't you?"

"He was a good brother to me." Atticus stated.

"Why?" The man demanded. "Because he didn't rat you out, like he should have? He didn't tell the cops about you and your damn offering of help and how you always knew it was him. How you were the only one who knew."

"He didn't want to get me in trouble!" Atticus shouted. "He protected me from the bad deeds I did for him! He cared about me! I changed him in the end! He cared about me again! Him not ratting me out is proof of that! He's not a bad person!"

"I never said he was." The man stated very sternly. "I never said he was the real crook in this case."

Atticus tried to respond for sixteen second before finally breaking down and crying. He started to shout that he was sorry, yelling and pleading for forgiveness to the others so loudly that Sinead almost didn't hear the man walk out of the room. Sinead took off her blindfold.

Atticus soon stopped and just crumpled down into the floor like a shack of bricks. He sobbed saying he was sorry repeatedly, like he just couldn't stop himself from doing so. Sinead herself knew and felt how that state of being was like. Sinead dashed over to him and picked him up, saying it was okay. That he was forgiven.

Just like he always did.

* * *

_AN: Sorry it took so long to update. I was really busy. Also sorry for any grammar mistakes, I just finished writing this about five minutes ago and didn't have time to send it to my beta reader. Hope you enjoy. Review too, please. Thanks again for reading. _


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